Prophecy
by TerraZeal
Summary: Nightworld AU based on a forum roleplay between a friend and I. Features NW characters and semi-crosses over with Supernatural and another CW show later on. Twists the Prophecy from Night World around quite a bit, focuses a lot on shapeshifter lore. Rated T for some harsh language and violence. CH6 is the end of the pre-written story. The rest will be mine alone.
1. Chapter 1

_**AN: **Based on an RP between a friend and I. If you're interested in participating in the RP (it is still ongoing), PM me for the forum name. This is loosely based on LJ Smith's Nightworld with characters from Supernatural and a few other media in it. Consider it an AU cross-over of Nightworld with some of the same plot points/characters. I will separate my own sections of the RP and my friend's (* means my post, + means her post). I've edited it a bit to sound more like a story and I do have her permission to post our RP here. I can post character sheets of the RP characters if none of them make sense in the story as they are. This is just a fun little roleplay between a friend and I. It isn't meant to be a serious part of Nightworld OR Supernatural, so please don't take it as such. I just wanted to share this story with more people and expand on it, if it dies out like some of our roleplays have. Perhaps if people like this, they will want to join in our roleplay. Right now, it is just the two of us carrying out this storyline. I do not own anything, nothing at all! Not at all proofread, so there are obviously errors, since this is an RP. Sam/Dean won't appear until a few more chapters in._

_**Prophecy**_

* Kero tiredly locked the door to her apartment and leaned heavily against the door. Casinos were hard places to work, especially the ones in a place as gambler heavy as Vegas. Shrugging off her uniform after heading to her bedroom, Kero decided to take a shower. The hot water spraying over her thin frame did much to ease her aching muscles. Perhaps she would feel like flying after this. Flight always helped Kero to feel better. Today, she had had two vampires and a wolf shifter come to her card table. She just about flew off then and there, but her self-control and their apparent non-recognition of an avian shifter kept her rooted to the spot.

Not to mention the trouble she'd be in with the Night World Council if she exposed herself. Death would be preferable to anything they would do to her. Kero shivered. After toweling dry, she opened her bedroom window and took a deep breath of anticipation. She grabbed a nearby small bag and clenched it between her feet. Closing her eyes, she called up the image of a great horned owl. They were native to the area, and had excellent night vision. The next time she opened her eyes, they were those of the owl. The bag was clutched tightly in her talons.

Kero swooped out the window, her night vision lighting up the world below. Her apartment building was on the outskirts of Vegas, more towards the desert. She liked it that way. The city and the lights were no home for shifters, though the predators didnt seem to mind it as much. The warm air took her soaring upward, into the clouds. She couldnt see the stars tonght, which disappointed her. They were beautiful from the eyes of a bird, and away from the city.

She landed on an Acacia tree, then hopped to the ground, gaining her human form as she landed. Her clothes did not shift with her, which is why she always shifted naked. Only clothing made from the hides of other shifters changed with the shifter, which is why she brought the bag. She dressed, though she really didnt know why. No one was in the desert this late at night, at least, no one but other animals, and none of them cared one wit whether or not she was clothed. Kero sighed in happiness, letting the peace of the place and scent of Acacia drift over her.

She could live out here, she realized. Using her shifter abilities to satisfy her base needs. If she did, though, she would never get revenge for the death of her parents. She needed to find a way to transform into those ancient birds that people called dinosaurs. She needed that open to her. Then no vampire would ever kill anyone in front of her again. Kero wiped away a small tear that had tracked its way down her cheek as she remembered her parents. _Thats not why I came out here. I came out here for peace. I will not cry. I will remain strong. _

+ The service station was nothing more than a dusty pause on the road. There was nothing around it as far as the eye could see, apart from more of the same desert Lena had been riding through for the last couple of hours as the sun rose. A glance at her fuel gauge told her she'd better stop, for at least long enough to fill up her bike's fuel tank. It was a rugged little bike that had been with her every since she'd crossed the Mexican border into the US three years before and was her only possession she couldn't carry, everything else was either in the duffel bag strapped behind her, or she was wearing it. Growing up as a bandit with no permanent place to call home tended to strip the idea of material possessions from a person.

Lena pulled a well worn state-map out of her back pocket and studied it while the attendant filled her bike with petrol. From what she could tell it wouldn't be much longer before she hit Las Vegas. She scowled at the map, still not entirely sure _why_ she was going to the Tacky Capital of the world but she'd never been one to ignore her instincts and they were leading her straight there. She paid the attendant and left him covered in dust as she continued on up the road. Clear cruising like this was about the only thing that gave her some form of peace, apart from shapeshifting.

It was mid-afternoon by the time Lena arrived in the city. Her lip curled in disgust as she wove her nimble little bike in and out of the traffic. She'd forgotten just how noisy, dirty and smelly cities were, what made Las Vegas worse was the complete lack of taste, but there were a few tucked away quiet places, like the park she found herself in after buying several papers and a cool drink.

Finding a large shady tree she sat and flicked through the papers, ignoring everything except the classifieds for homes and jobs. She circled only a few of each, discarding most of them as too close to the inner suburbs for houses or needing a formal education for jobs. If none of the legitimate jobs panned out then she'd just hunt down some less-than-legitimate ones instead. Deciding a place to live would be easier to find with employment Lena memorised all she needed to know and got back on her bike.

Two hours and two dead-ends later Lena pulled into the car park of the casino which was nearest to the apartment she'd been thinking about and shut off her engine before making her way to the entrance. _The direct approach will probably be best here if the last two places were anything to go by._ It still irked her to be treated like a child, even though she should've been used to it by now, so she marched straight up to the nearest security guard, handed over her ID and said "I'm here about the job."

She glared at his face as he studied her and then her ID and mentally dared him to make a comment. He didn't take the dare, instead choosing to call a superior on his walkie-talkie. Then he smiled at her, for about two seconds which had to be some sort of record for a human. Luckily for him his superior arrived and invited Lena into his office for an interview. Lena guessed him to be in his 40's and quite well built and apparently powerful, for a human. Once inside his office she wordlessly handed over what official papers she had and let him study them.

"Now, Miss Lena-"

"Lena". She interrupted. "I am not a 'miss', a 'Mrs.' or a 'ms'. I am Lena." For some reason he seemed pleased about that. Strange man.

"Okay, Lena, according to your papers you were granted entry into the country and US citizenship three years ago?"

"Yes."  
"I can't find any reference to a last name…?"

"I don't have one."  
"Okay…" he sounded somewhat incredulous about that but continued anyway, "There's no reference to you education either…?"

"I don't have one." He blinked, still unable to meet her gaze.

"But you can read and write?"

"Yes." He blinked again, before asking "how?"

"I learned."

"So you are self-taught?"

"Yes."

The man, whose nametag read simply "Al" drummed his fingers on the table in thought as Lena wished she could cut his fingers off to stop the irritating gesture. He leaned forward and said "To be honest I don't really know what to ask you in order to determine if you're employable or not so why don't _you_ tell me about yourself?"

Lena raised an eyebrow. _I could tell you things that would have you running out of here screaming like a little human girl_. She decided she'd better not though; it wouldn't be very good for her health. Just when Al thought she wasn't going to answer she began to speak in an emotionless monotone which would be creepy coming from Hannibal Lecter, much less a potentially very attractive young girl.

"My name is Lena. I was abandoned in the wild as a baby and raised by savages. I have no formal education. I taught myself how to fight, how to survive. I can read, write and speak in N'ahuatl, English and Spanish and can speak Russian and use sign-language also. Just after I entered this country I was given a license as a bounty hunter which is still current."

She paused long enough to pull out her license and place it on the table before continuing, "I am believed to be approximately 20 years of age and I can take my bike apart down to the last bolt and put it back together again."

Al waited a few moments more as he studied the intense young woman before him. Sturdy black boots, black leather jacket and open-fingered gloves, also black, blue jeans and tinted goggles sitting on her head suggested a practical personality. Her hair was beginning to escape the bun she'd put it in, which told him she cared little for trappings and looks. The tattoo he could see on her cheek suggested to him that she had a rebel's nature.

He also had the distinct impression she was leaving quite a bit out of her personal history, which, if true, was quite accomplished and she did not seem like the type to exaggerate. Rather he suspected she was downplaying her achievements. He glanced at her eyes again, this time caught in the mismatched gaze and unable to move, apart from the sudden and distinct urge to urinate. He decided then and there that whoever this girl was she made his nightmares seem like fun and his fears suddenly looked like euphoria. He somehow managed to curb his bladder reflex through sheer will alone. Suddenly Lena broke eye contact and Al felt he might survive the encounter after all.

Al felt a trickle of sweat trail down his spine before he finally broke the silence. "Well, uh, Lena. I'm willing to give you a job on a trial basis for a week. Do you have an apartment?"

"It's on my 'to-do' list." Al twitched at the emotionally lacking tone. Whatever had been done to this girl in the past had forced her to grow up rather more faster than most would, that's for sure.

"Uh. Well then, why don't we start in two days? You can come back tomorrow, say around 9, to get your uniform fitted and start the day after that. That'll give you enough time to find an apartment won't it? The actual job is only for three days a week-"

Lena gathered up her paperwork and shoved it all carelessly back into her well-travelled duffel bag as she interrupted him again. "It's fine." As she closed the door behind her Al, the head security guard for the entire casino, slumped against the table in relief as the intense presence Lena had faded into the distance. "What have I gotten myself into…?"

* Still leaning against the Acacia tree, Kero was nearly asleep. The peace and quiet of the desert did that to her. Sighing, she rubbed her eyes. She'd gotten what she'd wanted. Peace. A place away from all the troubles of the real world. Now it was time to go back to her apartment and reality. Peeling off her clothes, Kero pushed them tightly into the small pack. They'd be quite wrinkled, but thats what an iron was for. She would iron them when she got home. The cool desert air wind hit her naked body, giving her a slight chill. Kero sighed in pleasure.

If only she could live like this. She grabbed her canvas pack between her bare toes. Feeling better, Kero called up the image of the owl again. A few short seconds later, she ruffled her feathers, and took off. Back at her apartment in what Kero thought was too short a time, she flew in the window she always left open while flying. Her one and only friend in Las Vegas, perhaps even the world, Thea, a witch of Circle Daybreak, the good witches coven, had bespelled her apartment so that no one but Kero could enter without an invite, unless they knew the magic to remove the spell. Thea had warned her that if a powerful witch wanted in badly enough, she would be able to remove the spell with little to no trouble. Thea was not a very powerful witch.

Kero changed back to her human form, put on her sleeping gown, and removed the wrinkled clothes from the pack with the intent of ironing them before going to sleep. After ironing them, Kero went to her bed and quickly fell asleep. A loud ringing jerked Kero awake. Alarm clock...? No. It was only 4 in the morning. Too early to be going to work today. Phone. Where was it? Kero groped around by her nightstand for the phone.

"Hello?" she answered groggily.

"Kero? I'm sorry, I know you were probably asleep, but I just had to call you. There's something important you should know." It was Thea, her witch friend.

"What is it Thea? You know I need to be AWAKE for work tomorrow! I'm sure it could have waited until morning." Kero sighed. Thea was overly dramatic sometimes, and was likely exaggerating about whatever crazy reason she had called.

"Gran says shifters have been being killed around these parts. Its scary, Kero! I don't want you to get killed. She just learned from the council at Circle this evening. I tried calling earlier but you weren't home. She says they're vampires looking for the wild powers, since one is supposed to be a shifter and a shifter half-breed. They just kill any shifter they can find! Even werewolves!" Thea's hysterical voice sounded almost in tears.

Kero was shocked. Killing shifters? Vampires? Already?

"Thea, are you sure? Your Gran is quick to jump to almost any conclusion when it comes to vampires. You know she hates them almost as much as I do. I wouldn't put it past the bloodsuckers, but it seems awful early to be worrying about that. Calm down, Thea. I'll be fine. And so will you. Just watch yourself and I'll watch myself." Kero hung up the phone, ignoring Thea's protests.

She groaned and lay back against her pillow. Sometimes she wished she could just be human and not have to deal with all the terrifying things in the Night World. But then, that would mean giving up flight. It was too bad Thea wasn't in Circle Midnight. No, thats wrong. Thea didnt have the dark heart that was required to join that Circle. She was much to kind. 4 am. Kero pressed her fingers against her forehead. She rolled over and attempted to go back to sleep.

The casino didn't open until later in the day, since most people didn't get up at 9am to gamble. By the time Kero woke up again, it was well past 10am. She still had a couple hours until work started. The avian shifter didn't eat much, so her breakfast consisted of a bagel and cream cheese. She piddled around the apartment, watching shitty daytime television and cleaning. Apparently, Seinfeld was dating another woman with man hands and Roseanne made her son get a job. Kero was getting so tired of daytime television. She turned off the current annoying comedy show and dressed for work. Hoping today would be better than last night, she headed out the door and made for the elevator.

+ Lena left the casino via the employees' entrance into the garage. Before she walked through however her head whipped around as she glared at her surroundings. After a moment she relaxed (well…'relaxed' as in relatively) and continued on so she could collect her bike. For a moment there she could have sworn she'd caught the scent of another Night-Worlder, and a shapeshifter no less. Lena snarled menacingly at an oil stain on the concrete, the familiar feelings of rage crashing over her heart.

The fact that she was also a shapeshifter never entered into the equation, after all, _she_ was only a lowly stinking part-blood. Contrary to what her mother's people had believed she _had_ been aware of her surroundings as they'd debated over the future of her and her brother. He'd been aware too, and had hated them just as much as she had. Hell the two of them had been communicating in some unknown way before they had even been born. Lena decided not to dwell on his death, it only made her already shaky control over her emotions, and thus her magic, rather fragile indeed.

She leaned against her bike for the moment pulling out the pages she'd ripped from the paper with advertisements for apartments on it and studied the ones she'd singled out. There was one that was actually quite close to here, on the outskirts of the city naturally. Lena pulled out her already-much-battered Las Vegas street map and compared it to her mental deductions. She almost had the whole thing memorised and was pleased to see she'd been right. This building was near enough that she could run to work and back and it would actually be a reasonable workout. She folded up the pages and kicked her bike into life before slipping her goggles back over her eyes. If she could get this apartment straight away it would make this day almost good.

The stupid human who owned the apartment building was getting on her nerves already and she'd only known him for about five minutes. The traditional elevator music wasn't helping her mood either. If she lived here she'd probably take the stairs just to avoid the damn music. The manager continued babbling and Lena continued ignoring his babbling which was irritating her and her increasing irritation caused him to babble even more. It truly was a vicious cycle and she started to unconsciously growl in the back of her throat, gripping the strap of her bag so tight her knuckles turned white in an effort to keep herself from brutally murdering the man.

Luckily for him the elevator dinged, announcing their arrival on the floor with the apartment he wanted to show her. It had turned out that he'd actually two apartments for rent, with the other one three stories below their current floor, but he'd refrained from showing her that one for some reason. He lead the way down the hall, still babbling, though not as quickly, to unlock a door, not noticing that Lena's forceful stride had broken as she'd passed a door, three doors away from the open one the manager was now standing in front of.

It was the scent of the occupant of that apartment which had caused Lena's falter. Somehow she managed to keep her scowl from becoming even fiercer as her anger increased dramatically. There was no way to mistake the scent of another shifter. In her rage Lena didn't even bother working out what kind of shifter it was and barely glanced at the apartment, merely going through the motions before forcing the manager into eye contact with her.

"Show me the other apartment." He started trying to talk her out of it, citing nefarious neighbours who he couldn't get rid of, only to stammer to a halt as Lena's scowl darkened further, something he had been sure wasn't even possible.

"I _said_ 'show me the other apartment' bone-bag." Something in the way she growled the words at him convinced him to let her have her way. He did notice that she scowled dangerously at the apartment of a lovely, shy young woman…what was her name? Oh yes, Kerowyn. He wondered if they knew each other, then decided that they probably didn't and then turned to wondering why this girl…Lena, had reacted so negatively to Kerowyn's apartment. Perhaps he'd better warn Kerowyn about this girl.

Lena seemed dangerous. Perhaps even more so than the gangsters who she'd be sharing her floor with. Luckily for him his musings over Lena's reaction to Kerowyn's apartment door had ceased his babbling and decreased Lena's irritation with him. Lena still paid no attention to him, only thankful that his incessant noise had stopped. Three floors down and the elevator dinged again drawing Lena's attention to the manager's sudden change in attitude. Whoever lived on this floor, he was afraid of them.

Discreetly Lena sampled the scents in the corridor as the manager led her to the corner apartment at the end. No shapeshifters on this floor, but a pins-and-needles sensation indicated at least one witch. Well, no place was perfect and she'd have to deal with other members of the Night World sooner or later she supposed. Barely glancing around the apartment she decided she'd had enough of house-hunting. At least the prospect of violent neighbours made her imminent future interesting.

Damn, the man was babbling again. Didn't he ever stop? Lena dropped her bag on the kitchen counter and reached in pulling out a wad of cash and counting off two months worth of rent before turning back to the manager and interrupting him in full flow by handing him the rent and saying "this will do. Now get out."  
The manager, standing dumbly with the cash in hand spluttered and actually managed to get out "but you don't understand, the men who live on this floor, they're thugs! Gangsters! I couldn't in good conscience-" he cut himself off as Lena simply gave him a toothy grin that was anything but friendly and realised that perhaps it was the thugs who should be wary of the girl, no, woman. He scuttled out of the apartment, praying that he didn't have anything to do with the creepy young girl anymore. Unless she was having a really, really good day.

* Kero rode the elevator down to the main floor. A sharp, acrid smell assaulted her sensitive shifter nostrils. There was another shifter in the apartment. And it wasn't too far from Kero. The elevator stopped at the third floor. A blonde, male witch entered without saying a word to her. Kero smiled at him nervously. He was one of Circle Midnight. The dark circle she needed to contact. But she would prefer someone who looked less sinister, and was hoping Thea could get a hold of her cousin, who was in Circle Midnight. The witch raised an eyebrow at Kero's strange attitude. He'd seen the shy little bird around before, but never this close up.

The whole building was getting flooded with Night People lately. Luckily for him, he didn't live here and was only visiting his brother, who seemed to want to live in this hole in the wall place for some inexplicable reason. The witch chuckled lightly to himself. He liked shifters, and his former girlfriend had been one, but this shy little bird didnt seem like she would survive for a minute in the Night World's reality. Kero had herself pressed up against the back wall of the elevator as far away as she could get from the blonde witch when it stopped and dinged.

Kero and the witch parted ways as the doors opened. She glanced over her shoulder, hoping she wouldn't have to share an elevator with the handsome blonde witch again, even though he hadn't done anything to her. Kero sincerely hoped the other shifter in the building was nice. She didn't know if she could deal with dark witches and an evil shifter in the same building. Her nerves would be shot before she even made it to work.

Jerking in shock and pleasure as she left the building, she saw Thea waiting for her with a car. Kero normally drove herself. She would fly, but her work clothes and nametag were hard to carry, and would look strange in the talons of a hawk. Hawks were native to the area, but most didn't carry around bags of clothing.

"Kerochi! Over here! Thea's taking you to work today!" The bouncy, pretty, blonde woman practically sparkled in the Nevada sunlight. Kero wanted to slap her friend sometimes. What was a Kerochi? And why did Thea insist on calling her that sometimes? Kero groaned, but got in Thea's car anyway.

"Why are driving me to work? I can drive myself you know. I'm not a china doll, and I am not helpless!" Kero was yelling at Thea, who was not paying attention apparently.

"Hey, Kero, who's the hottie?" Thea pointed to the blonde witch Kero had shared an elevator with.

"I don't know. Some guy I was in the elevator with. Who cares. Lets just go, or I'm going to be late," Kero said.

Thea heaved a dramatic sigh and started the engine. The casino where Kero worked was close, but Thea tended to waste time on useless shit.

"Thea, have you had any luck getting into contact with Sarantia? I can't stand it anymore. I need to break the barrier of my shifting." Thea shook her head. "She's been too heavy into the Wild Power search. She said she'd call back as soon as she can. She really does seem interested, Kerochi. She's never had a shifter with an interest in changing into prehistoric critters."

Only Thea would refer to ancient, powerful, birds as critters.

"Look, Thea, I'll pay her whatever she wants. I've only been using the casino money to pay rent. Everything else goes into savings so I can pay the witch who can unlock all my forms for me." Thea smiled, "Oh, honey, I know that. If she'd let up on the Wild Power search, she'd probably do it for free once she knows your reasons. She hates bloodsuckers too. I think all witches do."

The car pulled into the parking lot of the casino. Kero hopped out as soon as the car came to a complete stop. "Thanks, Thea. Really. I'll talk to you later." Kero made her way into work. How was it that people managed to afford to gamble from noon til midnight? She passed by Al, head security guard, on her way in. Al was friendly, in an intimidating sort of way.

Kero liked him a lot. He made her feel safe. Even though she could likely snap his arm with ease. Avian shifter or not, she was still stronger than most humans. Al had a funny look on his face today. A spooked look. Kero wondered what could have done that to this large, potentially frightening man. She decided it would be better not to ask. The strong, heavy scent of smoke and alcohol filled her nostrils as she entered the main room of the casino. She clocked in, and headed to her usual table. The early gamblers smiled at her, recognizing one of their favorite dealers. The table wasn't open until Kero got there, but the loyal men had apparently been waiting for her. She picked up a deck of cards and started dealing.

+ Lena's first day of her new job was pretty quiet. Humans and Night Worlders alike seemed to know better than to make trouble with her watching over them. Even some of the other casino employees who were Night Worlders kept their distance from her. One in particular looked as though she thought Lena was going to eat her or something.

_I know avians are skittish but isn't that taking it a little too far?_ Lena dodged and weaved through pedestrian and vehicular traffic alike with practised ease, not even bothering to slow down for the humans. Their senses were so dull that most of them didn't even register her passing. At least the guards' uniform was okay, just a standard black suit and tie with a white dress shirt.

Lena had simply glowered at her tie and left the top couple of buttons on her shirt open, the hell if SHE was going to willingly put a noose around her own neck! They even let her wear her own boots and no one commented when she forgot to remove her gloves…and for some reason they told her to wear dark sunglasses. _Weird, it's not like I need any _help _to intimidate people_. All in all it wasn't too bad a day.  
There _were_ a couple of creepy leeches who'd been eyeing her off though, but the bloody bloodsuckers had always done that. Lena figured they didn't often see shifter part-bloods. She didn't either.

It wasn't until after she ran straight past the door to her building that she realised she was being followed. Running past had been an automatic instinctual reaction but now she was just pissed she hadn't noticed sooner. Whoever it was, they knew what they were doing, though not quite well enough that something hadn't twigged with her senses. Lena ducked into a deserted alleyway a couple of blocks on and stopped midway. It wasn't human.

Nothing with human blood, not even a half-human, could follow her like that and with her sensitivity to magic and witches it wasn't a witch, or any part-blood thereof. That left shifters or vampires. Both were practically impossible for her to trace when she was on the defensive like this. Personally she'd prefer a territorial shifter. They at least could be talked to and a treaty agreed on. A vampire on the other hand…Where was it…above?

No. It was still behind her. She glared over one shoulder. "Are you done playing hide-and-go-seek yet?"

The reply was far from what she'd been expecting. The muzzle flash was the only warning she got as the silenced gun was fired at her. Only her reflexes saved her from being shot in the head, and it was just as well she realised as a burning sensation spread through her right shoulder. _Silver bullets!? _  
She wasn't given a chance to regroup before her assailant attacked again.

Lena nearly blacked out from the pain in her shoulder as the giant, from her view, rushed her and lifted her by the neck, slamming her back into the wall so hard Lena felt something crack and causing her to cough. The coppery tang of blood filled her mouth as her left hand desperately tried to prise the vampire's hand off of her neck. Her right arm was useless because of the bullet wound and she could feel the blood trickling down her arm, hear it dripping onto the pavement below…

In desperation her hand turned into a giant clawed paw as she began to tear flesh from the vampire's hand. It had to be a vamp. Shifters almost universally scorned and avoided using silver weapons, even when hunting their own. Besides, she could see his fangs in his handsome grinning face as her struggles got weaker. Finally her hand lost her partial shift as she began to loose consciousness from blood loss and asphyxiation. His grin widened as her hand dropped to her side once more and her eyes dulled. He leaned in, finally speaking, "yes, yes! Die little kitten! Die and allow me to take your power!"

Lena's attack was so fast not even the vampire saw it coming. The dead expression on her face didn't change one little bit as she used her bowie knife, pulled from a sheath strapped to her back, to cut off his arm. The vampire staggered back a couple of steps, stunned. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen! Shapeshifters were almost as bad as cockroaches! Before he could begin another counterattack though Lena was already following through with her own attack.

The vampire made a strange little 'oof' sound as the much smaller girl launched herself at him, thrusting her knife deep into his chest, just missing his heart. In one smooth motion she ripped the blade up, through his chest and neck to his head, effectively cutting his upper body in two while turning her back to him at the same time, on alert for a sneak attack. There wasn't one.

Lena came back to her senses as the vampire's hand clawed at her ankle. She looked back, seeing him healing himself and weakly cursed for having missed his heart. The damned bloodsucker was regenerating himself. Tightening her grip on the knife Lena quickly swooped down and turned his head into a removable accessory. As the vampire's body twitched and then turned into grave mould Lena started breathing again, almost hyperventilating. That damn bullet was killing her!

Steeling her resolve she brought the knife up to her shoulder and used it to dig out the bullet, almost crying out in pain. She watched with detached interest as the bullet fell to the ground, her blood staining the silver black in the darkness. Carefully she transferred her knife into her right hand and used her uninjured left to press on her shoulder wound. _Shit. I'm loosing too much blood…_ Lena began to weave her way back towards the lights of the street proper, occasionally bumping into the walls of the alley as she lost her balance.

The edge of her vision was getting dark now. _Just a bit further…damn…I'm going to have to rely on these…these weaklings! I. Hate. This!_

As she staggered out onto the street Lena startled several people around her, the two closest girls screamed as she emerged into the light, covered with blood and holding a huge knife in her hand. The screams died however as she used up her last reserves of strength and fell slowly to the footpath. Her last thoughts as she fell into unconsciousness railed at her parentage.

_Why couldn't my father have been something useful, like a healer?!_

_Las Vegas has really hit a new low tonight_. Detective Moore glanced around the scene. The ambulance had left several minutes ago, heading for the hospital. From what he'd seen the kid in the back couldn't've been much more than 13 or 14, yet…according to the eyewitnesses she'd been holding a bowie knife that was easily as long as her own forearm. He looked back down into the alleyway were forensics were scurrying about, photographing everything, taking samples of the blood splattered about. The blood…clearly there was blood from more than one person down there. There was simply too much to have all come from that one little girl. A thought struck him and he turned to his deputy.

"Hey, Kimmy!" the younger girl turned, scowling at the ridiculous nickname she couldn't get her boss to drop.

"Yes, sir?"

"Put out a bulletin to all the hospitals in Las Vegas about anyone coming in with vaguely suspicious wounds, especially knife wounds. This may be the chance we needed to get this guy!" To his face Kimmy made a polite, 'yes, sir', but as soon as he turned she made a face at him. Idiot, she'd done that as soon as she'd found out there were two vastly different weapons involved.

"Once you've done that, bring the car around. We need to get to the hospital that girl was taken to."

Detective Moore looked up as his old friend entered the office he'd been given to use in the hospital while he waited on word from surgery about the girl. He smiled, to someone who didn't know him Al looked calm, but Richard could tell that Al was actually nervous and wondering what the hell he was doing, being called out to a hospital, by a cop, late at night. Once the pleasantries had been exchanged Richard slipped an ID card across the table for Al to examine.

He looked at it for barely three seconds before, "This is about Lena?"

"You know her then?"

"Yes, I hired her two days ago for a security position at the casino. Today was her first day at work. What is this about?"

Richard glanced away. "Her first day at work huh? It may also be her _last_ day."

"What do you mean Richard? Stop beating around the bushes, I know you well enough that I can see you're avoiding something."

Al watched in silence as Richard thought. Eventually the other man sighed, and began. "You've heard the rumours of a serial killer being on the loose in Vegas?" at Al's nod he continued, "Well…it's possible that your new girl…encountered him earlier tonight."

"…What?" Richard looked up at his old friend's whisper. He was pale and beginning to shake. No doubt blaming himself for this unfortunate turn of events. Richard took pity on him. Guy always was too nice for his own good. "She was still alive, though barely, last time I heard. They took her into surgery a few hours ago."

"Actually…" both men turned at the voice of a newcomer. "We finished surgery about half an hour ago. She should be out of Recovery and going into a room by now." The newcomer smiled. He was quite handsome, in a dark kind of way with tanned skin, dark brown hair and puppy-dog brown eyes. He was also still wearing a surgery gown, splattered with blood.

"She's very lucky. The bullet didn't damage anything too seriously, but she was beaten, and some of her ribs cracked, one was broken and had actually punctured one of her lungs. Overall though we are…cautiously optimistic. Providing nothing goes wrong she should make a full recovery."  
Al slumped over onto the desk, leaning his head on the cool surface with a muttered "Thank God."  
Richard, however, was up and herding the exhausted doctor out of the room, demanding to be shown the victim's room. For lack of anything better to do Al followed them out with Kim bringing up the rear, notebook and pen in hand.

When they got to her room though the young doctor baulked, refusing to administer anything to bring Lena around faster. Richard was a master persuader though and eventually won the argument which Kim and Al had not even been paying attention to. The doctor eventually caved in though.

"All right, I'll bring her around, but only ONCE. And if I think it's becoming too much for her you're leaving. Understand? There's no guarantee that she'll say anything intelligent at this point anyway. The drugs almost always scramble people's brains."

This last-ditch effort to change Richard's mind was in vain and he reluctantly administered the drug through Lena's IV. While they waited for it to work they observed her. She was lying in the hospital bed in a slightly upright position, her long silky hair covering the left side of the pillow, away from the bandages on the right side of her upper body. The short-sleeved hospital gown revealed much of her tattoo while the oxygen mask on her face obscured some of her features she was still clearly a very pretty girl. Especially with her suspicious, hate-filled eyes closed.

Al couldn't believe that she could look so serene, so peaceful, and so…so…innocent.  
Richard only fervently hoped that she had seen her attacker's face, and that she'd injured him well enough that he'd gone to another hospital and would soon be caught.  
Kim simply said the first thing that came to mind. "That, is the coolest, most awesome tattoo I have ever seen." No one could argue with that.

After several minutes her eyes slowly blinked open, sleepily wandering around the room, never settling on one face or object for more than a few seconds at a time. The doctor quietly breathed a sigh of relief; she wasn't going to make sense. Hopefully she didn't say anything too incriminating.

"Lena, my name is Detective Moore; can you understand what I'm saying?" Lena's unfocused eyes settled on the speaker and after a moment she spoke, her voice so quiet and weak everyone had to lean in closer to hear her.

"¡Estás en vuestra casa!" The men glanced at each other, confused.

The doctor merely shrugged and said; "I did warn you she might not make sense."

Surprisingly it was Kim who was able to translate what she'd said. "Spanish. She's speaking in Spanish." The menfolk looked at Kim as Al remembered Lena telling him she could speak the language.

"Well, what did she say?!" Richard looked about ready to shake the answer out of Kim if need be.

"Well…she…she said…'make yourself at home'."

"Okay…" Richard decided to try again. "Lena, you are in hospital. Do you remember being attacked by someone this evening?"

"No tengo hermano."  
"It means, 'I do not have a brother'." Kim supplied.

Richard scratched his head and pulled out an evidence bag from his satchel. It contained the gun that had apparently been used to shoot her with. "Do you recognise this?"

"Soy muy malo en la fisica."  
The doctor noticed her strength appeared to be waning as Kim supplied the latest translation. "She said; 'I am very bad at Physics'."

"One more question detective, then you must let her rest."

Richard scowled, hating that the young doctor was right. What made it worse was that the kid was talking gibberish and in another language no less! He tried again. This time producing the evidence bag with her own bowie knife in it.

"What about this knife? It appears to be yours."

"Mi aerodeslizador está lleno de anguilas." Lena's voice slowly faded as she spoke, and she looked as though she had fallen back into unconsciousness when she finished. Everyone looked at Kim strangely as she burst out laughing. Eventually, between giggles, she managed to translate.

"'My hovercraft…is full of…eels'!"  
Richard swore. This had gone nowhere! And the guy who did it was potentially still on the streets! If he didn't hurry up and get a good lead then those Special Investigations guys would take over. Again! He turned to his still-giggling deputy "Kimmy! You will stay here and wait for the girl to wake up properly. When she does send for me and question her further while I'm coming. Then-"

"That won't be necessary Detective." Richard nearly screamed in frustration. Talk about 'speaking of the Devil'. He turned and saw the last person he wanted to see. A tall, handsome blond man stood in the doorway.  
"You! Halliwell! How did you even find out…?"

The blond man shrugged and smiled. "We of SI have our ways. Do be a good fellow and hand over those evidence bags. After all you were taken off of this case as of ten minutes ago."

The two witches waited until all of the humans had gone before closing the door to Lena's room and conversing in low tones.

"Brother! I'm glad you came but what took you so long? I'm just glad she didn't say anything to get us all in trouble with the council!"

"Sorry, bro. I trusted you to handle this end of things, and I had to secure the site first. It all worked out okay."

"Vam…pire." The two brothers looked at each other before looking at the bed. Lena coughed slightly and tried again, too weak to even open her eyes after her little 'delirious' performance.

"Vampire…attacked…killed him." By this time the brothers were hovering over her bed, straining to catch every whispered word.

"Did you know this vampire?"

"…Nyet. A picture…recognise…random…attack…" the gaps between her words were getting longer. The younger brother was about to pull his sibling away when she spoke again, barely heard over the silence of the room. "Wanted…power…said…my power…his…after…death…"

They waited a while longer, but it soon became apparent that she really was sleeping this time and quietly left the room.

"'Power' she said. The vampires are after power? What kind" Chris watched as his brother paced his office like some sort of caged animal. "Does she even have any power, besides what allows shifters to change shape?" Chris knew this last question was directed at him.

"I'm not sure." He grimaced as his brother looked at him, confused. "I tried to get a reading from her but it was pretty confused. It might have been the drugs, or she's a part-blood of some kind. What fraction I don't know."

Wyatt bit his lip, thinking. "Could the blood loss have interfered?"

Chris shook his head. "No. That should have made it easier to read her."

"Well. I guess all we can do now is protect her and wait for her to wake up…do…do you think _she_ might be…one of _them_?"

Chris lowered his eyes. "That thought…did cross my mind. I figured it may be another factor which would make my reading of her…clouded. But I've never come across one of…_them_ before so I couldn't say."

Thea waited desperately as her friend's phone rang…and rang…and rang…each ring making the excitable witch more and more nervous. By the time the answering machine cut in she was hysterical, almost yelling at the machine.

"KEROCHI! Sarantia called and said there's been another shifter attack! It was only three blocks from your apartment! You HAVE to CALL ME! No one knows ANYTHING! Be alright! PLEASE don't be hurt!" She continued babbling for several minutes until the machine cut her off.

* Kero's day at the card tables had gone as usual, though she'd almost had a run in with a scary looking shifter. Kero had turned and quickly walked the other direction. The avian wasn't too keen on being some big dog or cat's lunch that day. She was walking to her car when she noticed she had 17 voice mail messages. Who the fuck...? She dialed voice mail, and Thea's hysterical, high pitched voice came out of the speaker.

Apparently, there had been more shifter attacks and Thea was pitching a fit, thinking Kero was dead. Thea had tried calling her home first, not realizing the avian shifter was still at work. Thea was awful at time-keeping. According to voice mail number 12, Kero was in the hospital and dead and Thea was going to round up the entire Witches Council to find her murderer.

By 14, Kero got tired of listening to her hysterics and dialed her cell number. "Thea! Where the hell are you? You were supposed to pick me up from work, or did you forget that too?" Kero had gotten Thea's voice mail this time. Thea was probably in the midst of calling Kero again. After a few seconds, Thea picked up.

"KEROWYN! Ohmagawd, you're okay! And shit! I forgot you were at work. And that I was supposed to pick you up. I'm soooo sorry I'll be there as soon as I can don't go anywhere!"

Thea's high pitched voice came out as one long string of word salad, at least to Kero's ears. Thea immediately hung up after spouting apologies and gibberish. Kero already had a headache. Or would have, if shifters could get headaches easily. She leaned against a nearby tree and closed her eyes. It was dark out now.

Leeches would likely be out and about now that their powers were at full strength. Kero hoped Thea got here quickly. She didn't fancy running for her life tonight. She had merely to shift into hawk form and fly as high as she could get to get away from leeches and most other shifters, but it was still a frightening experience. A crunching sound caught her attention. Thea pulled into the parking lot.

She flung her door open and ran to Kero and wrapped her in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're alright. The attack happened so close to here that I was worried. Come on. You're coming home with me tonight. That way Gran can keep an eye on you. She's one of the most powerful witches on the Council, and the most powerful in Circle Daybreak. She would be the most powerful all around, but that Halliwell bitch of Midnight has that title."

Thea was still talking about random stuff out of nerves, Kero figured. They weren't supposed to talk about Night World things in public place. And no way Kero was going home with Thea. She couldn't put up with that all night. She gently pried Thea's arms from around her waist. "I'm fine, Thea. I'll be fine. No one is going to attack me.

Why would they? There's nothing special about me at all and I can escape easily. They'd be better off going for someone who can't fly. Now take me home, please Thea. I need to shower and relax."

Kero turned away from Thea and got in the passenger side of her car. Thea nodded mutely, obviously thinking, or trying to. Kero closed her eyes, turned around, and pressed her face into the seat, not worrying about a seat belt. A car crash wouldn't kill her. As for Thea...well, Kero wasn't feeling too kindly toward her right now.

Blackness sank around her. Kero jerked awake. She must have fallen asleep. Thea was shaking her. "Come on sleepy head. Get out. You can sleep inside."

"Thea...you didn't. TAKE ME HOME!" Kero shouted at Thea. The stupid witch had taken her to her own home, which was located above a "Art Supplies" shop, which was really a shop for witches. If you were a Night Person, you went in the back door and showed them your ring. A black Dahlia was the symbol for witches. Shifter symbols varied by species. Avian shifters' symbols were lilacs. Kero wore hers around her neck on a pendant. No one thought anything odd about a girl with a flower pendant.

Thea was giggling and shaking her head. "You're not going home. With Gran here, you're safe. So come on. Stop being stubborn." She pushed Kero out of the car. The girl hit the ground with a light thud.

Being sleepy made her lose all her shifter grace. _I guess I have no choice. Thea won't take no for an answer. And at least I can sleep peacefully here, not in the same building as that other shifter and the wicked witch man._ Kero dusted herself off and went into Elsepth Harman's Art Supplies. A very old woman greeted them at the steps leading to the living area.

She radiated power and vitality, despite the fact that she had to be over 80 years old. Elspeth Harman. Second most powerful witch in the world and leader of the Circle Daybreak coven. Not to mention a member of the Night World council. Called lovingly by Thea, Gran or Granny. She was also a gifted healer. Her balms and salves could soothe even the most dire of wounds. Kero had had her arm almost ripped off one night after getting caught out by a wolf shifter, and Gran Harman had healed it so there wasn't even a scratch.

She wouldn't admit it to Thea, but she felt very safe here. Only the Halliwell witch could penetrate Elspeth's wards, and, though she was a nasty bitch, she really had no reason to attack Grandma Harman. Kero let out a relieved sigh and followed the old witch upstairs.


	2. Chapter 2

_**AN:** Introduces my vampire character. More lore on Lena's particular type of shapeshifting and abilities. Starts with my friend's writing this time. She is Australian, so any spelling/grammar errors may just be the way things are done down under. I never got around to asking, since she writes well enough for me that a few spelling issues aren't a bother. Chris's estranged mother is an evil bitch. Its a well-known fact within all of our roleplays that contain the two characters, but no one reading this knows anything about our old roleplays so I'm just pointing that out before anyone reads this and wonders 'who is this mysterious evil person and why does everyone seem to know who she is?' ** Means a shift to my other character POV._

_**Prophecy – Chapter 2**_

+ Lena came around the second time very slowly. She opened her eyes but quickly closed them again, wishing she hadn't opened them in the first place. The drugs in her system were causing her body to overload as it tried to both neutralise them _and_ heal a wound caused by silver at the same time. In her already weakened state this combination was giving her a severe case of vertigo, and she wasn't even standing up. At least the bed stopped swaying once she closed her eyes. She kept them closed as she listened to the people coming and going in the corridor and took stock of her situation. She must have been taken to a hospital.

That would explain the stinging scent of antiseptic. Her recollection of the attack was relatively good, up to the point where she must have used her knife on her attacker. She guessed she'd fought back, but how was a mystery. Her instincts tended to take over for her when she was in tight spots like that. Suddenly a thought occurred to her and her left hand groped at the front of her gown, searching for the delicate golden chains she always wore.

A great yawning pit opened up in her stomach as her questing fingers found nothing. They had been taken away…her only true treasure and _someone_ had taken it away! Lena felt something on her cheek and swiped at it with her hand, feeling wetness on her fingers. Tears? She closed her eyes tighter and willed herself back to sleep. When she woke up she wouldn't be weak anymore. There would be no more tears.

And she would track down whoever had taken her treasure and slaughter them for their transgression if she had to.

Elspeth Harman watched as Kerowyn tiredly greeted her and entered the apartment. She smiled; there was no doubt in her mind exactly what was going through Kerowyn's head. She was such a sweet girl, it was really too bad that she was such a vampire magnet at times. She had that dark kind of beauty that the leeches claimed made blood that much sweeter. Of course Elspeth did her best to shield Kerowyn from that sort of thing. The shrill ringing of the phone interrupted Elspeth's musings. She glared at the offending machine, but that didn't stop it from ringing. Eventually she snatched it up and barked into it.  
"What?!" but her demeanour immediately changed when she heard the soft voice on the other end.  
"I'm sorry for calling you so late Madam Harman." Only two men in the entire world called her 'madam' Harman and only one of those had this number.

"Chris! Dear boy, you know you don't have to be this formal with me, I'm just an old woman."

"I really am sorry for waking you, but…" Elspeth raised an eyebrow. If this boy was hesitant this call was about something big. "I…could I see you? The sooner the better. It's about…we discussed it at the meeting last night."

Elspeth's smile faded as the implications of his call sank in. She'd heard about the latest attack from Thea earlier. "Another one?"

Chris hesitated a moment before answering. "Yes. I really would like to speak with you about this in person."

"It's alright boy, this is far more important than a little sleep." She could hear the relief in his voice.

"I'll be there in two minutes."

True to his word, two minutes later there was a knock at the door, startling Thea and even Kerowyn. Elspeth let in the dark young man, noting his evident exhaustion. He immediately started apologising straight away "I really am sorry about this ma'am. I had to wait for my shift to end before I could get away."

"Nonsense boy! I meant what I said on the phone. This is important!"

"Gran…? What's wrong? Who is this guy?!" Elspeth turned to see Thea standing in front of a clearly nervous Kerowyn and clicked her tongue. She'd momentarily forgotten those two.

"Christopher, this is my granddaughter Thea and her friend, Kerowyn. Girls, this is Christopher, he's a part of the coven." Chris managed a tired, but still somehow gallant smile and bow as he greeted the two other women.

"I'm truly sorry for disturbing you this late at night ladies."

Elspeth took over. "You two go back to bed. Kerowyn don't you have to work again tomorrow?" She waited until they'd gone before turning back to Chris again. "There was another shifter killed wasn't there?" Her eyes widened as he shook his head.

"This girl is a tough one. She's alive, but in a bad way at the hospital. I tried to help her with my magic, but she seems to be resistant, I couldn't help her. She killed the one that attacked her tonight, but…if…_they_ think she's…one of the foretold, they'll come after her again I'm sure, but right now she's too weak to even open her own eyes. I…please help her!" Chris said this last as he bowed deeply to the older woman, literally begging her to help.

Elspeth watched the younger witch with narrowed eyes. "You say she killed her attacker?" At his nod she exclaimed "well why didn't you say so before boy! Anyone who kills those bloodsuckers is a friend of mine! Just let me get my bag and we can go now. The girls will be fine here…unless my counterpart gets nasty." Chris didn't react to Elspeth's assessment of his estranged mother.

"If she did want to force her way in, she'd do it while you were here, just to prove a point."

Elspeth called her healer's satchel to her as she thought that over. "True, she would do that. And what about that brother of yours? I heard he's not seeing that nice young girl anymore. Too bad really."

Chris unlocked his car door and held it open for Elspeth as she got in before getting in himself. "I couldn't agree more. Skye did him the world of good, but it was a mutual breakup. They both realised the relationship wasn't going anywhere. I believe she still keeps in touch with him, he told me once she said it was to keep him from being too much of prick again." Elspeth simply laughed at this and they spent the rest of the drive in silence.

At the hospital Chris filled Elspeth in on Lena's injuries and condition. "What I don't understand is that it appears that she used her own knife to dig the bullet out of her own shoulder. She must have known that it would cause her to loose more blood."

Chris held Lena's door open for Elspeth. "It's possible…" Elspeth mused over the possibilities this action signified. Most shifters who had wounds inflicted with silver weaponry merely wouldn't heal as they usually would. For some bloodlines however the silver could give them blood-poisoning in a very short amount of time. But those bloodlines were exceedingly rare these days. It was a mark of Chris' politeness that he didn't press her to finish her musings. Dear boy. She turned her attention to the small being lying in the bed in the darkened room. The neon lights lit up Lena's sickroom with an almost mocking cheerfulness.

"Did you do a reading for her boy?" Despite him being the flesh and blood of her most bitter rival Elspeth still thought of Chris as one of her own grandchildren.

"I…I tried to."

Interesting. The girl couldn't be read. Elspeth tried not to get too excited. It was only one indication that she _might_ be one of them, however there were plenty of other possible reasons why Chris hadn't been able to read her. He stood quietly by and watched as Elspeth placed a hand over the girl's wound. After several moments she pulled her hand away with a sigh.

"You're right, boy. She is resisting. I'm not sure how much of it is consciously though…"  
Elspeth placed her hand gently on the younger girl's forehead and concentrated again. This time the resistance was most certainly conscious as Lena fought Elspeth's intrusion into her own mind. It was actually quite impressive how much of a fight she could put up in her weakened state, but what Elspeth found once she was inside the girl's mind was enough of a shock that Lena was able to force her out, waking in the process.

Chris watched silently, unaware of Elspeth's battle to enter Lena's mind, so it was a shock when, several minutes later, Elspeth staggered back as Lena's left hand gripped her wrist in a white-knuckled death-grip. Her glare at the two of them could have peeled paint from walls! This girl was _intense_. He thought he'd encountered a wild shifter when he'd first met his brother's last girlfriend, but Skye was tame compared to this girl.

"Who are you? What do you think you're trying to do to me?!" Chris took a step forward to berate the rude shifter only to be stopped by Elspeth.

"We're trying to help you child." Lena made a rude-sounding snort and muttered something under her breath. Chris couldn't understand the language she used, but at least she'd let go of Elspeth's wrist now.  
"'Help' me? You don't think I've heard that line before, witch?" Elspeth tried not to let Lena's attitude get to her, after all she'd only seen a small portion of the girl's mind, but what she had seen was more than enough of an explanation. Elspeth decided to try the direct, truthful, response.

"You killed a leech. That's enough of a reason for me to help you. Chris here does it because he's a bleeding heart."

Lena's distrustful, suspicious eyes roved from one witch to the other and back again before settling on Chris. His scent was familiar enough that she was certain he'd been in the room when she'd first woken up.

"Where is it?"

"I…where is what?" Elspeth sensed the opportunity for a good-will gesture and kept silent for the moment.

"Don't play stupid with me," Lena all but snarled at the gentle witch. "Where are my _belongings_?!" Elspeth gave the tiniest of nods, praying Chris understood that she wanted him to return Lena's things. There was something in those belongings which would give them a more positive light in Lena's eyes if it was returned she was sure. Chris used a summoning spell to call the box with Lena's belongings in it to him.

When he got close enough she all but snatched it out of his hands and dumped the contents over her legs, scrabbling through them, looking for…something caught her eye in the flashing neon lights from outside. Chris saw her snatch up a plastic zip-lock bag that contained the jewellery she'd been wearing. From her body language those necklaces were precious to her. He wondered why she had two identical ones…and why did he feel as if he'd just escaped from certain death?

Elspeth waited a few moments before speaking but before she could Lena spoke, but far quieter this time. The witches guessed she'd used up most of her energy already.

"Why was I attacked? I've been in this city for less than a week. Hardly enough time to make enemies, and I'm certain I've never seen him before so he hasn't followed me here from somewhere else."

Chris decided to let Elspeth handle this. He would just observe and intercept any nosey nurses who might come in. "He attacked you because you're a shapeshifter child." Lena snorted again.

"Half."

"It doesn't matter to him. To them." That got Lena's attention. From the look in her eyes she still didn't trust either of them, but was willing to listen. "One of the oracles divined that the prophesied half-breed was half-shifter."

"So?"

"You don't think you might be her?"

"Like I'd care if I was." Elspeth raised her eyebrows at this, though she wasn't totally surprised, after seeing a portion of Lena's mind. She tried to think of something to get Lena to open up to them.  
"Don't you want to help the other shifters? They're not so different to you, you know…" Elspeth trailed off as she felt a surge of magical energy _explode_ from Lena. Her eyes filled with hate Lena was practically hissing her words at Elspeth.

"**Help** them? Why the hell would I help those useless bastards?" Elspeth and Chris both noticed the temperature of the room rising sharply. "After what they _did_ to me, to _us_?" At that moment the cardboard box on the floor sparked, and began to burn. "They should all burn in hell for what they did! And I'd gladly send them all there with my own two hands!"

It was just as well that Lena's small reserve of energy ran out at that point, before anything else caught alight. Chris had already used his own magic to contain the fire Lena had apparently started as Elspeth ran forward to check on the unconscious girl. Elspeth satisfied herself that Lena was sleeping and decided it was better if she didn't try to enter the young girl's mind again. Instead she began to undo the bandages so she could apply her best healing creams to Lena's wounds while Chris gathered up the scattered items on Lena's lap.

The necklaces in the bag were still in Lena's hand, locked in a death-grip. He decided to leave them there.

For a while he watched Elspeth work, but finally he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Ma'am…what do you think she meant…by 'us'?" Elspeth just shook her head.

"I suspect I know…but I'd rather believe that shifters didn't practice such barbaric customs anymore."

* Kero and Thea hunkered down near the door of the guest room. Thea couldn't hear a word of what was going on with Granny and the other people, but Kero heard it all with her sensitive shifter ears. That injured girl had just started a fire and the kind-looking dark haired man Elspeth had called Chris had put it out. He was some kind of witch as well, from what Kero could hear. The girl was some kind of evil-attracting half-breed with weird powers.

"Thea, should we-" she started, but Thea shushed her.

"Listen, they're talking again. You have to tell me about what. I've never heard Granny so serious, unless it had something to do with the bitch witch. Er, thats Mistress Halliwell of Circle Midnight, in case you don't know." Thea pressed her ear against the door harder than ever, though it was futile.

Witches didn't have extra sensitive hearing, like shifters did. Kero sighed. She closed her eyes and lay down near the door again, listening to the conversation between Elspeth and Chris. The injured, angry girl had called other shifters useless bastards. That hurt. Kero may be relatively useless, but she wasn't evil. She couldn't imagine harming anyone or anything, unless it was a leech.

The door suddenly opened and Thea landed with a thud, smacking her head on the hardwood floor.

"Well! Two spies we have here!" Elspeth Harman's harsh, brisk voice made Kero cringe. Elspeth grabbed Thea by the ear and pulled her up with surprising strength for an 85 year old woman.

"Listening in on others' conversations is dangerous business, grandchild. You should not have made your friend do so. Hearing what you heard may have endangered your lives. I'm sure you know what _they_ are and why its so important that the dark ones don't get control of _them_." Thea was trembling. She had never seen Granny so angry, and if what she said was true, she'd endangered her own and Kero's life. The last thing she wanted to do.

"Gran, I just wanted to hear something interesting. I didn't think it would do any harm!" She sputtered. Kero was trying very hard to turn invisible, but that wasn't a talent any shifter had managed. "Kerowyn! What about you? What do you think?"

Kero clenched her fists and just about cried. "I apologize Miss Harman. I...I was worried about the shifter attacks too. I'm a shifter. I wanted to hear. No one told me anything. If I'm being attacked, I want to know why. Is that so bad? Is it so bad to NOT want to be left in the dark all the time!?" Kero all but shouted this last one. Elspeth sighed.

"No, child, its not bad. Come here, both of you. I want you to meet someone." Elspeth led Kero and Thea into the other room, where the dark witch and the sleeping half-breed lay. "This is Christopher Halliwell. He is Melania's son. Don't worry, he isn't here to hurt or kill anyone." Elspeth had to quickly assure them. "Chris is an amazing healer, second only to myself. And perhaps his brother, if his brother cultivated any powers beyond black magic and got out of his mother's clutches."

Chris smiled at them warmly. Kero scowled at the young man. He wasn't much older than she, and he was deep into something, she could tell. "You must be Kerowyn. Elspeth tells the truth. You are quite lovely." Chris gently grasped Kero's hand and planted a soft kiss on it. _Far too gentlemanly. _Kero sneered. Was he playing her or was he REALLY that nice?

** Ty let the man he was currently feeding on drop to the ground. The scream he heard came from nearby. The ancient vampire wasn't a bleeding heart and didn't go out of his way to save people, and many people died in Vegas, or got raped, mugged, or any other variation of harm. This was different. The person being attacked was another Night person. He could smell the blood, and it smelled like shifter blood. Ty knew the prophesy, and why shifters were being killed.

He himself had been approached by another vampire, asking him to join their hunt for the Wild Powers. Ty had merely sneered at him and slammed the door in his face. Ty wondered if the Council was behind this. Being one of the most powerful vampires in the world, he was often asked to join the elusive Night World Council, and every time turned it down. Despite his apathy toward almost everyone and everything, he still couldn't allow another Night person to be killed for no reason. Especially not if it gave him a chance to kick a Council crony in the pants.

Or heart, if it came to that. Ty kicked his current meal to the side and made sure the still-living man was safely hidden behind the dumpster Ty had found him in. Homeless junkie scum, he tasted like heroin and sweat. Ty should have drained him dry and put him out of his misery. The vampire ran as fast as he could and slashed at the shifter's attacker with his silver dagger.

The person didn't turn, and the dagger penetrated flesh easily, Ty was disappointed to find out. His opponent wouldn't be much fun. His opponent whirled, barely affect by the silver dagger. Now Ty knew why the person hadn't bothered to turn around. It was another vampire, and vampires were not affected by silver as badly as shifters were. Silver left more of a mark and hurt more, but it wasn't the same poison like it was to a shifter.

The other vampire snarled angrily at Ty. "Why did you do that? You're a vampire, too. Aren't you on the Council? Don't you know the Wild Powers have to die if the Vampire World is to come?" Apparently this other vampire was a very stupid one. Ty licked his lips. He wanted to torture information out of it. The bit about Wild Powers and the Council piqued his interest. The shifter lay dying, though. He didn't know why, but he couldn't let her die.

"Sorry, brother. I didn't realize we were one and the same. I'm not that old yet." Ty lied through his pointed teeth. He held out a hand to the injured vampire. The stupid one reached out to take the hand up when Ty lunged and ripped the head clean off the stupid Council lackey. Ty sighed. That hadn't been fun or challenging. He turned to the girl.

The shifter that had been attacked lay on the ground, gasping for breath and appeared to be bleeding her life away. The shifter blood practically made his mouth water. It was the most delightful blood any vampire could wish for. Ty didn't feed on other Night People, though. That was against Council rules. He bent over the girl. She cringed and attempted to stand up.

"P-please! Don't kill me! I'm not who you're looking for, I promise! I swear it!" The shifter thought Ty was here to kill her too. He flicked his tongue idly over his extended fangs, which had elongated when he fed, then again at the smell of the blood so nearby. They retracted. No wonder she thought he was going to kill her. He was a vampire, just like her attacker. "I'm not going to kill you. I saved your life. You might be a little more grateful."

The girl shook her head. "You didn't save my life. He had silver bullets. He shot me. I'm going to die anyway," She coughed, a low rattling sound. "Please. My name is Illiana Quinn. Tell my mother I love her and-" she stopped as the vampire picked her up with ease.

"You're not going to die. I'm taking you to a healer. The best in Vegas. She's not fond of my kind, none are, but she can save you. You can tell your mother yourself." Ty carried Illiana to his nearby car.

She was weak, but not likely to die before he got her to the Harman place, unless she was more injured than he had first guessed. Driving through Vegas to the shop, he sped and broke several traffic laws. At last, the disguisted Art shop appeared. He went around back, as was custom with most Night people, carrying Illiana with him. She quivered in his arms and still managed to tempt him with her blood. From her scent, he guessed she was a canine shifter.

She smelled like a wolf or dog. Ty entered the Art shop as the door opened for him. He knew Elspeth Harman, and while she didn't like him, she didn't hate him either. And since he was doing a good deed, she wouldn't have prevented his entry. The real witch workshop was upstairs. Ty took a deep breath and entered Elspeth's living area.

+ Lena came around slowly. The first thing that always returned to her was her nose. It didn't take long for her to realise she wasn't in the hospital anymore. For starters the scent of antiseptic was gone…well, almost. It still clung to her and her hospital gown, but it was almost overpowered by the scents of…two, no three witches and another shifter. Funny, that shifter scent was familiar…

Underlying all these scents was the scent of flowers. Lena had no idea what kind, never having had the occasion or need to be able to identify different flowers but it was surprisingly pleasant.  
Feeling returned next. Lena decided she wouldn't rip anyone's head off for moving her, no doubt magically, from the hospital without her knowledge. This bed was perhaps the most comfortable thing she'd ever slept in…not that there was much competition. The next most comfortable bed she'd ever had was in the Rapa den on soft sand, leaning on the flank of the den mother.

Lastly she realised she was hearing voices. It was the two witches from the hospital discussing her little tantrum…practically word for word. Lena shrugged off their reactions. She didn't exactly deal with others particularly well on a good day and today…yesterday…whenever. Having someone try to kill you seriously ruined your day, no matter how good it had been to start with. Of course, it kind of sucked that that had been one of her best days in months, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

Lena tuned back into the conversation when she heard the old hag open the door and berate the weak witch and the shifter. Apparently they'd been eavesdropping where they should've. Lena gave them a couple of points for that; maybe they weren't entirely sheep in this city…the male witch sounded like a player though. Best keep an eye on that one. Lena decided she needed more rest, after all the more she slept now, the faster she'd heal. Some instinct told her these people thought she was something special…as she drifted off again something tugged at her memory…something the old hag had said in the hospital. _Bah. It's unlikely to have been important._

Elspeth sighed inwardly. Clearly she should have taken the girls into confidence sooner…well, Kerowyn at least. Thea was too much of a blabber mouth to really be trusted with anything of too greater importance, dear child though she was. And Chris, where did he learn his manners from anyway? Certainly not his mother or brother that's for sure.

He had enough manners to make up for at least his brother's lack, though he did come off as a player at best and a creepy stalker at worst. She looked over at the apparently sleeping half-breed, goodness she shouldn't think of the poor thing in those terms! She didn't even know what her name was! Elspeth remembered what she had seen in the girl's mind at the hospital and decided to keep that to herself. It was an extremely private memory and it wasn't her place to tell it to others.

Besides, Lena would probably try to kill her for it. Still…Elspeth decided to try to enter her mind again, but far more delicately this time and with Chris' help she may actually be able to pull it off. It took very little to organise. Elspeth figured Chris also wanted to see what made this girl tick. The hardest part was making Thea promise to stay out of it, Kerowyn had promised to keep Thea in check though so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. All that was left was for Chris and Elspeth to make themselves comfortable.

"…Is this all?" Elspeth understood Chris' confusion. They were certainly inside Lena's mind, but…they couldn't see anything. It was simply too dark. In response to Thea's pestering Elspeth kept up a running commentary…not that there was much to say at this point.

"Why would her mind be dark Gran? Is she evil?"

Elspeth thought carefully before responding. "I don't believe she is…at least not intentionally."

"The dark is probably a defence mechanism." Chris added. "Ma'am, I'm going to try to conjure a light."

"Make it a small one boy."

He took her at her word, making two small, pin-prick lights, revealing to Elspeth that they were standing in a corridor of some description. Elspeth and Chris 'walked' slowly through this maze in Lena's mind. Actually it was more like some sort of horrific medieval dungeon with close stone walls and slippery, muddy floors. Enormous hairy spiders scuttled away from them into dark crevices as they approached and enormous fat snakes slithered through the stagnant-smelling mud on the ground, almost tripping them on more than one occasion.

Worst of all it was as claustrophobic as hell, despite the size of the passages, the darkness created a truly oppressive atmosphere. Chris tripped on an especially large snake, as he tried to remove another cobweb from his hair, and went sprawling in the stinking mud.

"Gah! What the hell?! How could someone so young have a mind like this? Even if this is only the outer reaches of her mind…I've never come across anything like this before! Not even mother…" he trailed off abruptly.

"Are you injured boy?" Elspeth watched as he picked himself up.

"Just my pride I think…hey, what was that noise?" Elspeth cocked her head to the side, listening. She hadn't heard anything, but her hearing simply wasn't what it used to be.

"Has the girl detected us then?" Elspeth noticed Chris wasn't paying attention, and was about to tell him off but realised he was staring _behind_ her, utterly terrified. Elspeth didn't get the chance to ask him what he was looking at because at that moment she saw an unusually large shadow emerge from around the bend in front of her and lost all ability to speak. In the soft light from Chris' spells it was only faintly illuminated, but it was clear from the outline of this creature that it was the same beast Elspeth had seen in Lena's memory.

And it was utterly terrifying. The soft lights glistened on its lean flanks and glinted on its razor-sharp teeth. Distantly Elspeth could hear Thea calling them, asking what was wrong but neither of them dared to make a sound. Suddenly another one of the creatures joined the first. Elspeth glanced at Chris' face and guessed there were more of them behind her. She was just thinking, _a strategic retreat would probably be best here…_ when they attacked. They didn't have a chance, they moved far faster than she thought possible for animals of that size, even if they were only constructs of Lena's mind, and in seconds all that she could see was the slashing claws and teeth…

Thea jumped back as Gran and Chris came back to themselves with screams and wide, fear-filled eyes. Both were covered with terrible claw-wounds. Elspeth quietly told the two what had happened in Lena's mind as Chris healed their wounds, still unable to speak after his scare.

"Gran, are you _sure_ she's not evil, because those things sounded pretty evil to me! And they attacked you! If that's not evil then what is?!" Kerowyn was nodding, edging away from the unconscious form of the other shifter.

"There was no evil intent there Thea." Elspeth wondered how she could explain this to the others without breaching Lena's privacy.

"Indeed." Chris appeared to have found his voice, "All of what we saw was merely the…outer edges of her mind, if you will. For most people that's an area of…confusion, random thoughts. It's the inner mind that truly reveals a person's…intentions or affiliations. That…place, those…creatures, were all merely defensive constructs of Lena's mind, to prevent intrusion of others into her inner mind." Elspeth nodded, encouraging him to continue. He was doing quite well after all.

"But to see a defence mechanism so…elaborate and complete in one so young is…rare and somewhat disturbing. It's very telling of what she's been through in early life to have her mind already so well defended and organised, but that in and of itself is not evil."

"Quite right," Elspeth said after a few moments of silence. "For all we know her inner mind could be all sunshine and rainbows…though I doubt that I'm sure that it's not as dark and dreary a place as the labyrinth Chris and I encountered. I wonder where Lena could have encountered such a place in her life…"

"But…madam Harman, did you say you accessed her inner mind at the hospital?"

Darn. Elspeth had been hoping he'd forgotten about that. "Yes, though only for an instant. It's likely that the drugs that were in her system interfered with her mental processes somewhat and that was the reason I could get in." She paused. "Hmmm…it appears we have a visitor. Kerowyn, this man is a vampire, however he is not inherently evil, and he will not harm you."

Introductions to Ty waited while Chris and Elspeth worked on the injured shifter girl. It didn't take them long to patch her up, though she was still rather weak from the blood loss there was no danger of her loosing her life. Elspeth fussed over her for a while, telling her to get some sleep before calling her parents in the morning to let them know she was still alive, still okay. It was decided to put her in the same room as Lena, since they both appeared to be predatory shifters, but Illiana baulked at the door, quivering.

"What's wrong with you child? She's a shifter, like you."

"No." Illiana shook her head at Elspeth's comment, her voice quivered. "Not like me, she's…she's…a…predator."

Elspeth exchanged a look with Chris. What was it about Lena that made even a werewolf terrified of her? Was she really that…wild compared to the other predatory shifters? At that moment Ty came in the room.

"And who is this tasty little morsel Lady Harman?" Elspeth merely watched as he leaned over Lena. He wouldn't dare try to feed on her, especially not here; however…

Lena's sub-consciousness urged her into wakefulness. Her eyes sprang open to see a vampire leaning over her bed. _Vampire!_ She managed to flip herself up and over the vampire so she landed behind him, every move a study in feline grace, as her left arm changed into a massive black paw with dagger-like claws positioned over the vamp's neck. It had all happened in an instant, so fast that not even Ty had been able to react, other than to freeze. If she wanted she was in a position to cut his head off.

"Make one wrong move and I separate your head from your neck, _vampire_." Lena's voice was low, and there was no doubt that she'd follow through with her threat if she felt it was necessary. Illiana squeaked and hid behind the door as Elspeth stepped forward.

"That's enough, girl. Ty wouldn't harm you, especially not here." Lena's deadly gaze swept across to the old witch.

"You again! Old Hag, where am I?" Thea twitched at Lena's name-calling but didn't do anything. Lena was too damn scary.

"You're in my home girl, where you can heal in safety and be protected from other attackers. Now, please let Ty go, he's really not worth killing." Lena appeared to debate this for a minute before muttering something in Spanish and kicking the vampire away from her, letting her arm go back to normal.

Elspeth let out the breath she didn't realise she'd been holding. "Thea, get some spare clothes for the girl, Kerowyn, go put the kettle on. I think we could all use a nice cup of tea."

A short time later everyone reassembled in the living room. Thea had managed to find a camisole and pair of shorts that fitted Lena. The camisole revealing practically every inch of her tattoo, Lena stalked back out into the living room, sending a death-glare in Ty's direction before seating herself on the window sill and glaring outside instead. Elspeth glanced at Lena, and then decided she was listening, even if she wasn't looking and sighed.

"Well…I guess it's time and past for some explanations. Especially for our shifter brethren." In the window Lena stiffened and managed to stifle a growl. Even she knew better than to piss off a witch in that witch's own home. Elspeth pretended she hadn't seen Lena's reaction as she continued. "Perhaps this should have been done a long time ago. Then at least the word could be spread throughout the shifter community so that they could be better informed and thus better able to protect themselves."

* "_Four to stand between the light and shadow,  
Four of blue fire, power in their blood.  
Born in the year of the blind Maiden's vision;  
Four less one and darkness triumphs._

One from the land of kings long forgotten,  
One from the hearth which still holds the spark,  
One from the Day World where two eyes are watching,  
One from the daylight to be one with the dark."

Elspeth Harman's voice cracked slightly as she spoke the words of the prophesy. The old witch's eyes flickered to the shifter half-breed by the window sill. Day World where two eyes were watching...or land of kings long forgotten...either could be her. She was half of shifter and something else, Elspeth also had no idea where she came from and what land. It could easily have been from a land of ancient, forgotten kings. Kero watched the old witch with one eye and kept another on the new wolf shifter and the girl by the window.

She really hoped they didn't think of her as dinner. Same with the vampire man. Though Elspeth apparently knew him and considered him relatively harmless, Kero couldn't help but be frightened. He was not the same vampire who had killed her family, but he was still a leech and she despised and feared them. Still, being terrified nearly witless, Kero wanted to know. She wanted to know it all. Why she was targeted. Who was doing the targeting. She didn't want to be in the dark any longer. Kero listened to Elspeth Harman intently, and a lot was slowly becoming clearer.

"We don't know who the people are. Or where they are. But for some reason, the vampires seem to be targeting people who fit the prophesy. Alania, our Seer of Circle Daybreak, has divined that a shifter is the one from the daylight to be one with the dark. It makes sense. Shifters, for the most part, are human during the day, and animal at night. Most shifters I know do most of their shifting at night. I know you do, Kero dear." Elspeth tilted her head toward Kero.

Kero nodded, yes, she was most comfortable with her power at night. Where she was less likely to be caught and seen. "The hearth which still holds the spark...we believe that person is a witch. Though Alania's vision was not clear on that part. We are completely at a loss as to what _one from the land of kings long forgotten_ means. The Seer's vision was cloudy and incapable of telling us anything about this person. The same goes for the two eyes part of the prophecy. We are almost one hundred percent sure this means a half-breed of sometype. Like our guest over there,"

Elspeth nodded in Lena's direction, ignoring Lena's death glare for the moment. "This is why shifters are being targeted by people who wish the Wild Powers to die. Who and why anyone would wish the Wild Powers to die, I do not know. If even one dies, according to the prophecy, the world will end." Elspeth almost sounded her age when she spoke that last sentence. She trailed off, awaiting reactions.

Ty hesitated before stepping forward. He could tell he wasn't wanted here, but he intended to hear the old witch out too. He'd known about the Wild Powers, of course, and the prophecy, but he had never heard it in its entirety. This was new and interesting information. Still...he had his own information to share with these Night People. Though the way Lena was glaring at him, he wasn't sure he should share his information. He could still feel her claws at his throat.

She had moved fast. Faster than any shifter he'd encountered. Ty was ancient and powerful, and not many could challenge his strength and speed. This girl seemed to be one, and she was so young.

"Well, Master Ty? What have you to say? I saw you step forward as if you had something to say, but you haven't spoken a word yet." Elspeth was far too observant.

Ty sighed. "Miss Harman, forgive me, I was debating whether or not I should tell you this. It will likely only upset you and your friends even more." Ty sighed, and carried on, after Elspeth had shot a very sharp look at him. "The girl I brought you, Illiana, the werewolf. She was being attacked by a vampire."

Ty heard Kero and the man called Chris gasp and shoot accusing looks at him. "I didn't attack her! If I had, why would I have brought her here? I would have drained her dry! Shifter blood tastes like chocolate tastes to most humans. Delicious, rich, and satisfying. But I left her alone, even while she was soaking my shirt with her blood."

Elspeth clapped her hands for attention. "Master Ty did not harm this girl. I have told you twice now, Kero dear. He will not harm a soul in this house, no matter how hungry he gets. We have been acquaintances for a long time, and he hasn't touched a drop of my blood. Carry on, Master Ty."

"The vampire attacking Illiana thought I was with him and let slip a bit of information. A bit you might find quite useful. He said the vampires on the Night World council were attempting to bring out something they called the vampire world. He said the Wild Powers have to die for this to happen. The idiot may have meant the entire council. However, he said Vampire World. I can't think of any of the other races on the Council who would WANT to bring about a world ruled by us bloodsuckers. After all, nearly everyone hates us." Ty grinned, showing his sharp fanged canines. No sense in hiding what he was. Or even attempting to since everyone already knew. "Unless your Midnight counterpart has some plan to become a vampire queen, I can't see why even she would want this. No offense, young man." He waved idly at Chris, though he honestly didn't care if Chris was offended.

That Melania Halliwell was bitch and Ty would love to get his fangs in her neck. She'd caused much trouble for good and neutral Night People of all types, except vampires. For the most part, she kept to tyrannizing her own species and occasionally shifters. Melania had some odd infatuation with shifters. Didn't keep Ty from hating her bitchy guts though.

"None taken, vampire. My mother has strange motivations, but you're right, I can't see her siding with vampires on this. She gets too much fun from torturing and killing other witches and shifters to want them to become extinct. Sure, she wants immortality, the kind that becoming a vampire would give her. Mom doesn't want to be a bloodsucking leech, though." Chris grinned at Ty. "No offense, of course."

Ty laughed. He liked this young man. Chris was kind, but also had a sharp wit about him that Ty could respect. "None taken at all, witch boy. Miss Harman, what do you make of this information? I hope it has been of some use to you."

Elspeth nodded. "Yes, Master Ty, you have been very helpful indeed. Thank you for telling us. Though I'm sure if you had held out long enough, I could have gotten it out of you anyway. You may be older than me in years, but I'll always be older than you in reality. You've been 30 for over one thousand years. I age every year. And with age comes knowledge. I will have to look into this at the next meeting between the covens. Melania is never friendly to me or anyone, but I will have to talk to her about this."

Chris jerked at this proclamation. He shook his head vigorously. "No, Madam Harman! You can't! Ty was right about her not siding with vampires, and I truly CANNOT see her siding with them, but she is an evil person. She wants the Wild Powers herself. My brother told me that last time he was at my apartment. He, too, is rather unkind, but he's still my brother. You can't talk to mother. Please Madam Harman."

Elspeth sighed. She was starting to feel older with every second that passed. She had told them the prophecy and why they were being hunted. Ty had given her much to think about when it came to the Council. Chris had given her a lot to think about as well, with Melania. Elspeth looked around at the odd group of people in the room. A vampire, two shifters, a young trainee witch, a healer-witch, and a half-breed shifter. Just yesterday, her apartment had been empty of all but herself and her ditzy witch-in-training grand daughter. The end was coming. She could almost feel it. For good or for evil, the Wild Powers were awakening. The prophecy was slowly coming true, all around her.

+ Lena listened to the entire story. It was an interesting bedtime tale, but not much more than that. She was far more concerned about her injured shoulder. While it was far better than it had any right to be, no doubt these witches had used a healing on her; it was still throbbing after her acrobatics with the vampire earlier. Still, Lena was certain that none of the others could tell she was hurting. After all, one didn't spend the better part of their life hiding all pain and emotion for nothing, and these people weren't exactly very observant…well not for everything.

She mulled over the prophecy verse the old hag had recited. This was all quite new to her. Lena did not make a habit of socialising with anyone, especially Night People, and she certainly didn't exchange gossip with them so while she'd been aware there'd been something up in the Night World she hadn't been aware of what it was. She recited the verse over in her head again, slowly, one ear listening to the conversation the others were having. Actually it was more of a pointless debate at this point.

_Four to stand between the light and shadow,  
Four of blue fire, power in their blood.  
Born in the year of the blind Maiden's vision;  
Four less one and darkness triumphs._

One from the land of kings long forgotten,  
One from the hearth which still holds the spark,  
One from the Day World where two eyes are watching,  
One from the daylight to be one with the dark. 

Inwardly Lena grimaced. Two of those lines were uncomfortably close to describing her and it had been evident that the old hag had thought so too, from the glances she'd been getting. _One from the Day World where two eyes are watching_ could refer to her horrendously mismatched eye colour, but…she'd never really been a part of the 'day world', not until the last couple of years anyway. Before that she'd been a creature of the night, just like the Rapas she'd spent her formative years with. More likely that this line referred to the human who was supposed to be a part of it.

_One from the land of kings long forgotten_…Lena fidgeted, thoroughly uncomfortable. **This** line fitted her far more thoroughly than any other, given her mother's people and the area she was from. It was a…strangely apt description of that area. Lena pulled her necklaces out from under her borrowed top and studied them. _Kings long forgotten…_ She clenched her fist around the stones and glared out the window, seeing the old hag's gaze on her in the reflection. That damned old woman was far too perceptive and observant. Though she did watch Lena a lot anyway. Lena looked at the carvings on the stones, seeing the fierce Jaguar-like beast again. She'd heard recently that all Night People had something similar, a symbol to prove what they were, and which also showed their species, but…those were of _flowers_, not beasts like hers was.

Then again, they thought that the half-breed was of the 'two eyes' section of the prophecy, rather than the forgotten kings. Lena relaxed. Either they were wrong or she wasn't one of them…speaking of…

"Why does this have anything to do with me?" Though her voice had been low as she asked the question it cut through the debate that was going on behind her with ease, causing them all to stare at her in astonishment. Lena watched as the ditzy witch opened and closed her mouth like a beached fish before the male witch…Chris, she thought his name was, spoke.

"Don't you remember?"

Now she turned and pinned him with her stare. "Remember _what_?"

Despite his best efforts Chris couldn't extract himself from that deadly gaze, nor could he speak. Elspeth realised what was going on and answered for him.

"When we were at the hospital, you set fire to a cardboard box. I doubt the action was conscious though."

Chris slumped into a nearby armchair as Lena's gaze flicked away, releasing him from her stare.  
"Oh, that." He looked up, wondering at Lena's offhand tone, and caught her staring at her own palm-up hand in concentration. After a few seconds an odd red light began to emanate from Lena's pupils, making him shiver. Damn this kid was scary! Then, a small ball of fire appeared in the space over her palm.

Lena noted with no small satisfaction that the vampire looked nervous.

"Your precious prophecy has already ruled out my fire. Aren't your…'Wild Powers' supposed to have _blue_ fire?" The little ball of flame hovering above Lena's palm was orange, making it an ordinary fire, even if it was magically produced. After a moment more Lena closed her hand around it, putting it out. Chris noticed the red light in her eyes vanished at the same moment.

No one seemed to know what to say to this development, but eventually Lena herself broke the silence again.

"Besides, what if one of your Wild Powers is already dead?"

* Ty was staring intently at the girl who'd called fire. Her fire was not blue. Hm. The vampire remembered a part of the prophecy that said the Wild Powers couldn't use their blue fire until they awakened completely, but he figured this girl wouldn't believe him if he tried to tell her. The girl had cut in, stopping their debate quickly, and again starting another one.

"Besides, what if one of your Wild Powers is already dead?"

That sentence had brought on silence on both sides. The witches, and Ty's. Elspeth, the old witch, smiled grimly at that remark.

"Then, child, we are all doomed anyway and this discussion, and the prophecy, is irrelevant. However, Alania would know if one of the Wild Powers was dead. She may be blind to the physical world, but not the spiritual. She would see the death of our world. Or the beginning of a new one, however it worked out."

Ty interrupted Elspeth.

"But what if she didn't? What if, say, Melania, or one of the others on the Council, had somehow blinded her spiritual vision? What then?" The vampire crossed his arms over his chest and sat down on the armchair Chris was slumped into.

The male witch jumped up, glaring at him as if he had somehow shocked him. Ty sighed, but slid down into the chair. He had been tired of standing anyway.

"It doesn't matter. We don't know. Couldn't know. Unless someone infiltrated the Council. The only person here able to do so without much suspicion would likely be the Halliwell child."

Chris glared at the vampire. "I am not a child. I am a grown man, leech. And how can I infiltrate the Council? My mother and I are estranged. We don't even talk."

Ty smiled. "Talk to your dear brother. Ask him if he's heard anything. He's on your momma's good side, isn't he?"

Kero stepped forward hesitantly, almost afraid to make herself known in the room full of predators and a vampire to boot. "How do we tell who the Wild Powers are? Really? I mean, can they use their blue fire now, or does something have to make it happen?"

Thea glanced at Kero, shocked by her sudden boldness. "Yeah, Granny, I might be one and not know it, right? Just cuz I can't conjure fire doesn't mean anything! I might be an asleep power or something!"

Kero covered her face with her palm. Leave it to Thea to say something stupid in the middle of a heated discussion. Elspeth glared hard at Thea and Kero.

"You wouldn't know. You might well be one." Kero snorted at Thea's shocked gasp.

Elspeth continued. "The Wild Powers have no control over their blue fire. Not until its awakened, anyway. From what Alania has divined of the Wild Powers, only an extreme situation or extreme emotion can activate the blue fire. There are also those among Circle Daybreak that insist the blue fire can't be used properly until the end of the world is upon us. So there is no way to tell whether one is or is not a Wild Power. I'm sorry, child. Even though your fire isn't blue, it doesn't mean it can't be. Or won't be."

+ Lena resisted the urge to snort. _What a load of crock_. At the end of the day these people still knew nothing. Who was to say that the world would 'end' anyway? All the stupid prophecy said was that 'darkness triumphs'. That didn't necessarily mean the world would end, or that all species other than vampires would cease to exist, it could just mean a natural catastrophe. Meteor impact, nuclear holocaust, all-powerful dictator, any number of scenarios could fit the terms 'darkness triumphs' besides the world coming to a halt. Besides, people had been predicting Doomsday since the beginning of time, who was to say this wasn't another false alarm?

_One from the land of kings long forgotten…_

Lena frowned. That one line of that stupid verse was haunting her and it was really starting to annoy her. The others were arguing again…well some of them. The hag and the leech were staring at her and it was really starting to tick her off.

"This is a load of crock." Well, if nothing else she had a knack for stopping conversations and getting people's attention. "All you're doing is arguing over the fact that you don't know jack-shit. Then you agree you don't know anything and start arguing again."

The leech looked like he was about to say something but Lena cut over him again. "Besides, what does it matter if I _can_ call fire? That doesn't mean anything either. I'm sure there's hundreds of magic users who can do that much, the only difference between them and me is the fact I'm only a half-breed."

Lena snarled the hated term, how it galled her that people only saw her as such. She was more than her parentage, as dubious as that may have been. At this point the other two shifters were backing away from her. Useless weaklings. Even the wolf was scared of her. At the very least she should have had enough pride to attempt to hide her fear.

"If people like you lot are the only ones knowledgeable in your precious prophecy then it's my opinion that the world is in trouble." _Not that I really care either way. Death is merely a new beginning._  
Lena surveyed the room. "Tch." Useless worry-warts the lot of them. Lena left her place at the window and stalked back into the room she'd woken in. It would be nice if they got the hint and broke up their little pow-wow. Not like bitching about the situation was going to change anything. Besides, she wanted no part of this and even if they whispered she'd be able to hear them.

Hopefully they wouldn't be stupid enough to talk about her beyond the whispered "bitch" that she'd heard just after she'd closed the door. It had sounded like the weak witch female, who had been quickly shushed by the other shifters.

Lena rolled her head on her shoulders as she crossed the room, trying to ease the tension she felt. That damn bloodsucker's presence made it impossible to get even a semblance of relaxation, no matter what the hag said. Her eye fell on the desk in the corner. There was a plastic bag there, along with all the knives she'd had the night she was attacked. Just how long ago was that anyway? Not that it mattered either way, she knew the Night World wouldn't allow her to go back to the casino job for a while yet, to prevent unnecessary questions about her rapid recovery, but this business of doing nothing but sleeping wasn't something Lena was good at. Her eyes fell on her bowie knife.

It was still covered in blood, hers and the leech's. Idiots, it should have been cleaned straight away! She'd have to find the right equipment to do that soon. She took it out of the plastic and tested the edge, it needed sharpening too. Looking in the bag she found her clothes, which actually had been washed. The left glove was ruined; the seams had come apart when she'd shifted her hand. She tossed the pair in the bin. It was easier just to find a new pair. Her jacket was in better nick, except for the hole in the shoulder, but that was easily patched up, and wouldn't be the first patch she'd put on this jacket. Her shirt must have been ruined, because it wasn't in the bag.

…_only an extreme situation or extreme emotion can activate the blue fire_. Great. Now the hag's words were haunting her. Lena smiled grimly. Extreme situations she'd had aplenty and emotions other than hate and anger weren't her forte either. The Night World was better off hoping she _wasn't_ one of their Wild Powers, because it was doubtful that any power she had would ever awaken if that was the case. Her eye fell on a pad of paper in the corner of the desk, giving her an idea. She opened the drawer, finding a biro and took the two items over to the bed, sitting cross-legged with her back against the wall and searched her memory.

Elspeth knocked on the door, not really expecting an answer, and Lena didn't disappoint. Most of the others had gone home, except Kerowyn, whom Thea had extracted a promise to stay from. She turned the knob, opening the door to reveal the fierce little half-breed to be sitting on the bed with the notepad that had been on the desk and a pen. She was doing something, but Elspeth couldn't quite see what from across the room with the lights off. She flicked the switch and was intrigued to see that Lena flinched and covered her eyes with a growl. Thea, standing behind Elspeth gulped. Elspeth was making Thea help her as punishment for eavesdropping earlier.

"Lena, I need to change your bandages." Again, that fierce glare. Truly, if looks could kill Lena would be a master assassin, but she said nothing, putting the paper aside and standing up. Thea squeaked again as Lena simply took off her top and stood half naked before them. _Clearly no self-esteem issues._ Elspeth thought as she began to remove the bandages on Lena's shoulder. Most of the work was done in silence until after all the bandages were removed.

Elspeth tried to hide her surprise. All that was left of the wound was an angry, tender-looking patch of fragile new skin. Even with the help from her creams Lena shouldn't've healed this quickly. Just who or what _was_ this girl anyway, powerful, that was certain. She carefully ran the tips of her fingers over the new flesh, noting the trail of goose-bumps that followed. And the quiet growl from Lena.

"I'm going to need the blue pot Thea."

Thea shook herself out of staring at Lena's tattoo, "Yes, Gran." She handed the pot over and watched as her Gran gently smoothed the cream over both sides of the wound. She couldn't hold it in anymore and gently touched Lena's left arm, tracing the tattoo, not noticing that Lena was glaring at her and Elspeth watched them with baited breath.

Lena wasn't entirely sure what to do. She'd _never_ had someone do that before. For lack of any other options she jerked her arm away. Thea looked down into her face. "What is it?"

Elspeth continued her work as she watched the two girls, hardly daring to believe that Lena wasn't tearing Thea to shreds.

"It's a tattoo. What does it look like?" Her voice was as cold as ever but there was something else in it. Elspeth wondered what it was that had changed.

"No, that's not what I meant, what does it mean?" Elspeth watched Lena's face carefully and caught the slight change in expression. It was fast, so fast she almost missed it but it was there. Elspeth began to put a clean bandage on Lena's shoulder as revelation hit. Thea had knocked her off-kilter, not with threats or taunts, but with kind words and gestures. Truly, Lena had no idea how to deal with something like that. It made her seem…so much more approachable, for now anyway. But it was sad too, because it made it clear that Lena had never had kind words directed to her in her life.

Lena scowled at the witch. "It doesn't mean anything." Thea looked disappointed but didn't press the issue, instead looking at the paper Lena had been working on. Actually her tattoo did have meaning. It was a tribal thing, not from her own tribe but another that she had been affiliated with in the past, between the bandits and coming to the US. Most people thought of feathers when they saw it but in actuality it was supposed to be flames and claws.

Her heritage, just like the stones around her neck…a thought occurred to her. Perhaps those could be spelled so they stayed with her when she shifted? She was under the roof of one of the most powerful witches in the world…perhaps later. Lena wasn't very good at asking for favours, even if she was offering to pay.

"Hey, what's this?" Lena glanced over at Thea as she pulled her top back on. She was holding up the pictures Lena had been working on. "You're pretty good at drawing. It looks like a vampire."

"That's because it is." Elspeth held out her hand, taking the pages from Thea. "That's the vampire that attacked me."

* Ty paced around outside Harman's shop. As a vampire, he was a night person (no pun intended). He didn't have much else to do except go home and read a few new books he'd managed to find at a local Borders bookshop. This half-breed intrigued him. As soon as he'd left a healed Illiana with Elspeth, he'd wanted to have a one-on-one with the half-breed. Her magic and her shifter blood brought up many questions. Not about the Wild Powers.

He no longer cared about that. The vampire was listening half-heartedly to the conversation taking place in the room that smelled of old shifter blood. Blahblah...tatoo, pictures, drawings, stupid female witch blather. Ty growled in irritation. They had the perfect opportunity to question her, and they were pretty much wasting it. Stupid witches couldn't even tell when someone was lying to them. Well, the old Harman probably could, but Thea certainly couldn't.

She likely couldn't tell whether someone was lying if they told her the sky was pink and the grass was white. Young witches pissed Ty off. They had none of the power and wisdom that the older ones got. There was a small tree that lead up to the window in the room the witches and the half-breed were in.

Scowling at himself and how he was acting like a snooping child, he still climbed the tree with ease. To Ty's delight, the curtains were partially open and he could see inside. The shifter girl likely sensed his presence, but he hoped she thought he was still below. Elspeth was talking to her about the picture she'd drawn. Ty's sensitive ears could hear every word.

"This vampire looks familiar? You say he was the one that attacked you? Perhaps we can use this to find out who he was, and what organization he represents."

Ty strained his eyes to get a closer look, but the old witch was holding the picture the opposite direction. Ty growled again. This was irritating. He leaped from the tree, landing on the ground easily. Going around the back, to the door, he entered. Elspeth still apparently decided his presence was okay, because the spell that kept unwanted Night People out was still letting him enter. Ty followed the steps up to the room where the witches were.

He passed the shy bird-girl on his way in, apparently he wasn't the only one eavesdropping. She cringed away from him and gasped.

"W-why are you still here?" Kero whispered. She was still afraid of him, but she couldn't let him just bust in on her only friend and the woman she thought of as her own granny. "If you hurt them I'll-" Ty pressed a finger to her lips.

"Hush. I'm not going to hurt anyone. Miss Harman told you that." He kept his voice to a low whisper that only Kero could hear. "I only wish to talk to the girl. Not Illiana. The dark one. So please hush and go back to your room. Go to sleep. You work, I assume." His flippant tone suggested to Kero that the conversation was ended and he would not say more. She licked her dry lips and retreated.

Not bothering to knock, Ty opened the door. "I overheard your conversation. Yes, I was eavesdropping. Trying to get a look through the window, but even I don't have X-ray vision. I just want to see the picture of the vampire you drew. I might know him."

Ty attempted to drown out Thea's frightened little squeaks. Elspeth nodded. "Yes, I was actually thinking about you, Master Ty. You know a lot of the other vampires. Forgive me, child, but he may be able to identify our shifter-killers." Elspeth turned the drawing so Ty could see, but didn't hand it to him.

Ty almost gasped. Yes, he knew that vampire alright. "That is Mikael. Or was Mikael. He is, or was, one of the Redfern's top lieutenants. The Redfern's are the vampire council's leaders." He didn't know why he added that last part.

Most people knew who the Redferns were. "He was a nasty piece of work. But not nasty enough for our little halfing here, I see. If you don't mind, I would like to talk to her, one on one, some time, Miss Harman. I don't think she'll agree, since it appears she hates my kind as much as most." Ty turned to the half-breed. "My apologies, miss, for talking about you as if you weren't here, but you don't seem all that sociable. Also, I don't even know your name. I assume you have one. Most people do."

+ 'Not very sociable'? No kidding she wasn't sociable and she damn well intended to keep it that way! Somehow, Lena wasn't surprised that the leech had been eavesdropping. She was mildly surprised that they seemed to think that the vampire she'd destroyed was powerful, but…she supposed he'd let his guard down because he'd managed to shoot her.

Of course that was only because she'd been stupid and had let her guard down first. Lena's thoughts didn't show on her small face. So the bloodsucker wanted to chat did he? Well she wasn't about to let him get her in a room alone, especially while she was still weakened from her wounds. The vampire cleared his throat, apparently expecting something from her.

"Lena."

Everyone looked at her as her sharp ears picked up a faint gasp. The featherbrain was probably eavesdropping again. No matter, Lena could speak quietly enough that not even another shifter would be able to hear her.

"Uh, huh?" Stupid vampire. He'd asked for her name hadn't he?

"Don't make me repeat myself again, leech. My _name_ is Lena." A thought occurred to her as she flicked her glare to Thea. "Get out." The witch spluttered for a moment before being silenced by Elspeth and shooed out.

Thea slammed the door behind her as Lena felt a faint surge of relief. That girl had really knocked her off kilter and Lena needed time to think through that encounter.

She looked at the vampire and elder witch, who was also heading for the door.

"Old hag." Elspeth paused. "Sit down." _There is no way in hell I'm going to lock myself in a room with a bloodsucker, alone, especially not while I'm still weak._

Lena waited until Elspeth was sitting in the desk chair before she looked back at Ty. "So. Talk."

* Ty was surprised by her answer. Lena. Just Lena. No last name at all. That in itself was strange. Ty had been born in a time when titles were more common than having a last name was, so that was why he didn't have one. Ty debated asking her why she only gave him one name, but decided it was probably a stupid question. He was a bit unnerved by Elspeth's presence, but apparently Lena wasn't going to talk if she were in the room alone with Ty. Did she fear him? Or just hate vampires? He wasn't quite sure, and wasn't sure he would bother to ask.

"Lena. This vampire you killed...he was powerful in his circle. I could probably have bested him, but I haven't met many shifters who were capable of so thoroughly taking out a powerful ancient like Mikael. I am assuming you killed him by removing his head, as he was powerful enough to have healed from nearly any other injury. So, Lena. You're a half-breed. Even if I hadn't overheard them talking, I could smell it in your blood. But half of what? Shifter and what else?"

This had been really nagging Ty. The fire-calling was indicative of a witch, but from what he'd seen, she didn't exhibit any other witch traits. The form her hand had shifted into also nagged at him. "The black paw. The one you were going to use to try to behead me. What were shifting into?"

Perhaps answering Ty was going to be too much of a mouthful for the antisocial Lena, but he really hoped she'd quell his curiosity.

+ Lena's hands clenched into fists. Damn, she should've known he'd bring up her parentage. He could've at least waited a couple of questions! Lena glared at him and briefly considered lying, but then, if he could smell she was only a part-blood he'd probably notice a lie. So would the old hag for that matter.

Eventually she answered him, grinding her answer out from her clenched jaw. "My sire was a witch." He opened his mouth but Lena pre-empted him, wanting only to get off the subject. "That's all I know." Her low voice was almost inaudible and she was almost growling. Lena didn't even realise she was loosing control until the old hag stepped in.

"Please calm down child, I don't want this house set on fire." She managed to hold her ground as Lena's enraged gaze settled on her, but Lena knew she had a point. She closed her eyes and counted to ten, very, very slowly. By the time her eyes reopened the room temperature had dropped and she'd hid her rage, but her temper was still on a hair-trigger.

Silence. Lena stared at the vampire, waiting for his next question, but it was Elspeth who prompted her.  
"Lena, what manner of beast were you going to changing into earlier, when you threatened Ty?"  
Lena lowered her gaze, again thinking of lying, but then, they probably wouldn't know what it was anyway.

"_Titi_." She was rewarded with blank looks. If she was going to ask the old bat for a favour she supposed she'd better elaborate. "Another name for them is 'Rapa'."

Elspeth hesitated before asking another question, cutting Ty off. Lena liked that she seemed to have annoyed the vampire.

"This…beast, is that what I saw when I accessed your mind?"

For a moment Lena seriously considered setting fire to the apartment and everyone in it. Eventually she muttered, "yes."

* Accessed her mind? Miss Harman must have done that when Ty wasn't around. Rapa, and part witch. That explained a lot. He didn't know what a Rapa was, however it seemed quite powerful and dangerous. The vampire wiped a bit of sweat off his brow. The sweat was tinged red with blood, as most vampire sweat was. The extreme heat that had filled the room earlier and caused him discomfort must have come from Lena's anger. _I angered her with my question about her parentage. I wonder why? _

"Miss Harman, you accessed Lena's mind and encountered these Rapa beasts. I don't know much about witches, but I thought such an elaborate mind-protection spell was beyond someone so young as her."

Almost glad Elspeth was in the room, Ty directed his next question to her. "How and what were these things? Do you have any idea?"

Elspeth sighed. "They are her version of defense from intrusion into her inner-mind. I don't know how she managed such an elaborate construct so young. It took me many years and study to protect my mind so thoroughly."

_Deepens the mystery_, thought Ty. "Well, Lena, how are you able to construct those things protecting your mind? Perhaps you know more about witchcraft than you're letting on?"

+ Lena glowered dangerously at the vampire, and was pleased to see him take a step back, though she was careful not to show her pleasure.

"Are you calling me a liar?"

Elspeth stepped in before Lena could accidentally start another fire, "Of course not child, but the fact remains that no one so young that I have encountered has ever had such an elaborate protection before. Not even the Halliwell boys…" Elspeth trailed off, unsure of how to continue and eventually Lena just shrugged.

"I don't know." A thought occurred to Lena. "You think I made up the Rapa? They are real beasts."

The vampire frowned before pressing on with "and your witchcraft?"

Lena's eye twitched, "What about it?"

Elspeth stepped in once more, "What can you do child?"

Lena's temper began fraying again. "Stop calling me that. I was never a 'child', not in any sense of the word." Lena paused, wondering if it was wise for her to reveal her secrets to these people. _No matter, if worst comes to worst I can just disappear back to where I came from. Back to where I belong._ Still, it was hard for her to reveal so much, when she'd spent her entire life hiding what she was from everyone, humans and Night Worlders alike.

"I can call fire, light or put fires out, heat things up or remove heat. Nothing more." She didn't add that it was all self-taught, it never occurred to her that that would be out of the ordinary.  
Abruptly Lena decided that she wanted to ask some questions too. For some reason this bloodsucker was taking a great deal of interest in her, and it didn't seem as though it had anything to do with all that prophecy bullshit from earlier so then why…

For the first time she looked the vampire directly in the eye, forcing him into direct eye contact with her. "Why are you so interested in me, in my history?"

* Kero pressed her ear to the door. She should have followed the leech's suggestion of just going to bed, but with all that had happened tonight, she couldn't. If this Lena girl could turn into a mythical beast, maybe there was hope for Kero yet. Thea got to be in there, so Kero should have been as well. She wanted to know more, too. Not just about the prophecy shit, but about why Granny Harman let a leech in her house, and what this half-breed Lena girl was. On Kero's part, it was just blatant curiosity.

Kero was almost glad that the leech was asking questions. The presence of two predator shifters and a bloodsucker in the same house was giving Kero the shivers. If Thea hadn't extracted a promise to make her stay, she would have flew right out the window the second the opportunity arose. _I have to work tomorrow_. _Why am I staying up listening to this? It probably won't affect me at all anyway. At least, as long as the vamp doesn't kill me._

Ty pondered his answer for a bit. He was interested in her, and her history, because in all his years of unlife, he hadn't encountered anything at all like her. She made killing vampires look easy. She made conjuring fire look easy. The vampire stifled a groan as he smelled something familiar. The scent of the bird girl. Stupid little thing. She was supposed to have listened to him and gone back to bed. Oh well. It was no longer of his concern. If she wanted to involve herself in this, then fine, let her.

"Lena, I'm interested in you because...well, to put it simply, you intrigue me." Ty grinned. That was likely to not be a sufficient answer for her, but he really couldn't phrase it any other way. "I mean, I'm over a thousand years old. I've seen shifter and witch half-bloods, and even drank from a few. Delightful taste, let me tell you. However, none of them were anything like you. You seem to be one of a kind. Also, I am a bit worried about what should happen if the Vampire Council or Circle Midnight gets its hands on you. Have you ever thought of siding with any other Night People? I doubt it. You don't at all seem the type to be part of any organization."

The vampire grinned again. He knew his questions were irritating her. He hadn't been wanting to piss her off or irritate her in any way, but she was very closed about a lot of things. Why she was being so open right now...he had no idea. "Tell me, why are you even answering me at all if you hate people so much? Especially vampires?"

+ Lena's eyes narrowed at the first part of Ty's answer. He found her…'intriguing'? Not the answer she was expecting, to say the least, and not one she was particularly sure she liked to hear. After all 'intriguing' could just be a synonym for 'potentially very tasty'. He had mentioned a particular liking for the taste of half-breed blood. His comment of her being 'one of a kind' though…Lena did her best to hide the pang of grief she felt at that. _I suppose I _am _one of a kind…now, aren't I brother?_ She'd turned to hide that from the vampire, but wasn't sure she'd managed it. The old bat who was watching her with far too much interest for comfort, so it was certain that she'd seen it. Lena started putting her various knives back on as she listened to the rest of the vampire's explanation. Of course, Ty's not coming across others like her didn't necessarily mean much; it could just be that he needed to get out more.

"…thought of siding with any other Night People? I doubt it. You don't at all seem the type to be part of any organisation." She turned back in time to catch the grin on his face. Damn. He knew he was annoying her and he actually liked that fact. She shrugged on her jacket as she thought about her answer.

"I had my fill of…'organisations' years ago." Both Elspeth's and Ty's eyebrows rose at this. "As for answering your idiotic questions, I have my own reasons." _And I've had enough of answering you, moron._ She added silently.

Lena stalked silently over to the door and yanked it open, causing Thea and Kero to tumble into the room at her feet. _I'm surrounded by idiots._ She leaned in, closer to the two, making them both shake as the scent of fear rose around them. If they were so damned scared they shouldn't risk coming near her.  
"I'd've thought you two would have realised you suck at eavesdropping by now." The avian practically whimpered, but the witch-trainee just quivered. As Lena went back to the table to pick up the bag with her belongings in to she saw the resigned look on Elspeth's face. Clearly she wasn't the only one who was unsurprised at their antics.

Finally the vampire appeared to realise what she was doing and managed a "hey, wait a minute!" as Lena walked out of the door. Kero stumbled back, away from Lena as she approached. Unable to resist she put on a burst of speed, getting behind Kero before she realised, and rested one hand gently on the taller girl's back.

"You shouldn't try to run away from predators like that." Lena figured she was probably coming across as a sadist, but it was a lesson this girl needed to learn, and it allowed Lena to blow off a little of her irritation. She lowered her voice so that only Kero, and perhaps the vampire, could hear her. "No matter how well behaved they are, if you run they can't help but chase you, it's just the way we are."

_Time to leave before the stupidity in this place rubs off on me._ Lena turned and walked away, hearing Kero let out the breath she'd been holding. Lena got part way down the stairs before a clatter sounded behind her.

"Wait, please wait a moment!" Lena paused but didn't turn around. She never dreamed the little bird would come after her like this.

"Please tell me how you did it!" Now Lena did turn. Kero flinched but didn't back away.  
"Tell you how I did what?" There was something here…an undercurrent of desperation tinged with hope that somehow had managed to outweigh Kero's fear of Lena.

"How…how did you learn how to turn into a mythical beast?" Lena's green eye narrowed in confusion.  
"Mythical beast? All the cats I turn into a real."

Some of the hope in Kero's eyes dimmed, but she persisted, "you called them 'Rapa', aren't they myths? No one here has ever seen or heard of them before so…" Lena realised Kero had trailed off because of the scowl on her face.

"Why do you all insist that the Rapa is not real? Is it because you have never heard of them before? Or is it simply because human 'science' has not discovered them and proved their existence? I told the leech and the old hag before, the Rapa are not just a construction of my mind; they are living, breathing beasts. Just because human 'science' has not discovered something does not mean it doesn't exist. After all, we too are living, breathing beasts." Lena's gaze flickered to the vampire who was standing behind Kero at the top of the stairs, and she added, "most of us anyway."

This time they let her go.

It was nearing 2.30 on the following afternoon that Lena found herself on the footpath across the road from Harman's Art Supplies. At the very worst she'd have to deal with the ditz witch, but best of all the vampire either wouldn't be around, or he'd be a corpse. She took a breath and crossed the street. Standing here staring at the old hag's business wasn't getting her anywhere. She tightened her grip on her bag as she entered the Art Store, not wanting to be presumptuous by going up the back stairs. Luckily the old hag's scent was strong down here, and fresh, which meant she was somewhere in the building. Unfortunately so was the ditzy one and Thea was the one who spotted Lena first, a glance around showed Lena that Elspeth wasn't actually in the shop itself. There were several humans shopping so Thea had to plaster a smile on her face and pretend she wasn't afraid. As she got closer Lena glanced at her and returned her attention to the paint display.

"I'm here to talk to the old one." Lena kept her voice low so the humans couldn't hear her, but Thea frowned and almost looked like she was going to refuse to take Lena to see Elspeth, but eventually just nodded and gestured for Lena to follow her out to the back stairs.

"Gran's upstairs." Lena nodded and began to go up but Thea's voice made her pause. "If you do anything to Gran I swear I'll…"

Lena didn't even glance back. "Even if I did do anything to the old hag, what could _you_ do about it?" When she didn't receive a reply Lena continued up the stairs and knocked softly on the apartment door. There were no new scents to indicate the old bat had any visitors, which was good. Lena didn't want anyone around for this.

"Come in." Lena opened the door, stepping inside to Elspeth's surprised face. "Well, this is a surprise. I didn't expect to see you here again, especially not this soon."

"I have my reasons." Elspeth recalled Lena using that exact phrase only the night before to Ty's inquiry about why she was answering his questions. Intuition told her that Lena's reasons had something to do with her.

"And I suppose those reasons have something to do with me then?"

"You are…perceptive." Lena came further into the room. Elspeth was sitting on the couch with a cup of tea, reading a newspaper. Lena put her bag down on the floor and opened it, taking out the clothes she'd been loaned the night before. Elspeth's eyebrows rose in surprise. By the look of things Lena had washed them before coming back.

"I doubt you came back just to return those did you?" Elspeth sat back and took a better look at Lena. She'd put a patch over the bullet hole in her jacket and had found a new pair of gloves and a t-shirt that said 'Dragons Killed the Dinosaurs'. It was an odd piece of humour for someone like Lena but then it was probably just the first shirt Lena had found that fitted.

Lena hesitated, unsure of how she was supposed to continue. Conversation was not her strong point, far less asking for favours. _Just get straight to the point, like ripping off a bandage, the faster it goes the less painful this will be._

"Is it possible to put a spell on an object, so that object will stay with me when I…" Lena searched for the right word, "_change_?"

Elspeth thought for a moment. "Yes, but it depends on the object and…the ingredients aren't particularly cheap. It also requires some of your blood, to tie the object to you." Something was different today. Elspeth remembered the look of grief that had been in Lena's eyes when Ty had called her one of a kind and wondered at the source of that grief, and if this was connected to that.

Abruptly Lena nodded and reached up, unclasping her necklace and taking it off. Elspeth remembered seeing it the night before when redressing the wound in Lena's shoulder. It was a double-stranded affair with a single clasp. One of the strands was shorter than the other so that the two green stones would hang one above the other perfectly. Lena held it up.

"What about this?" The light caught on the stones for a moment and Elspeth realised that there was something carved on them.

"The spell should work on something like that. What is it?"

Lena chose to deliberately misunderstand the question. "The chains, setting and clasp are an alloy, I'm not sure of the name. The stones are…I believe they are from a meteorite."

"Well then child, there's no time like the present." Elspeth gestured for her to follow and led her back into one of the back rooms, her witch's workshop, and started to assemble what would be needed. "This spell is quite short but it is expensive."

"How much?" Lena didn't even twitch when Elspeth quoted her $1500. Elspeth couldn't know it but she'd brought twice that amount with her.

Elspeth gave her a small cup, "I need some of your blood child, in this. Now, where did I put that dagger…" Elspeth went to turn to look for something for Lena to use to cut but froze as the girl's nails simply grew big and sharp and within seconds Lena had the tiny cup full and was handing it back. Elspeth finished her preparations and spilled most of the blood into the mix, which by this time had the necklace in it too. She made a sign over the larger bowl and muttered the spell under her breath. She picked the necklace back up and placed it around Lena's neck, noting the younger girl stiffen as she did so.

"It should change with you now." The old witch jumped as Lena abruptly vanished, but no, she didn't actually vanish, she _shrank_…in the pile of clothes on the floor sat a little coal-black cat with one green eye and one yellow eye and a fancy-looking double-stranded golden collar with two green stones. As abruptly as she'd changed Lena changed back, and redressed. Unsure of how to thank the old woman Lena simply reached in her bag and pulled out two $1000 bundles, handed them to the witch then turned and walked out.

Elspeth watched her go, then looked down at the money in her hand. Something told her that there was more than there should be, but that that was also Lena's way of thanking her. The girl didn't even look as if she'd ever thanked anyone in her life. Elspeth sighed, then glanced over at the cup, which still had a small amount of Lena's blood in it. Enough, she hoped, for Alania to divine something about the fierce and wild girl.

* Elspeth glanced at the small amount of blood in the cup before her. Lena's blood. A mysterious shifter/witch hybrid. The Crone of Circle Daybreak going to see the Seer wasn't a usual occurrence. Alania usually contacted her first. Elspeth glanced at her companion in the vehicle. Her vampire acquaintance, Ty, had agreed to come along when she'd asked him if he wanted to.

He wasn't usually sociable, but he seemed to be very interested in Lena, if only because she was the only oddity he'd experienced in over a thousand years. Elspeth choked out a little giggle. She was very glad she was a witch. She would die, and likely soon, since witches were only slightly longer lived than humans were. The Harman crone welcomed it. As she had once read in a silly kid book that Thea loved for some reason, death was but the next great adventure. And it was. She almost pitied the bloodsucking leech beside her. Ty noticed her staring at him. This was really quite odd. Elspeth had asked him to come with her to meet the Seer for some reason. He had been pleased when he found out it had to do with that shifter girl that interested him.

The limo crunched into the gravel driveway of a small, secluded house, surrounded by weeds and unpruned shrubs. Ty had contracted the limo. Being quite old, he was also quite wealthy, and the darkened windows helped keep out the bright city lights, even at night the bright lights of the cars and casinos hurt his sensitive eyes.

The vampire got out as the car pulled to a stop. His driver, David, also a vampire, got out and opened the door for Elspeth. The witch beat him away with a mahogany cane she usually carried with her. Ty was probably the only one who knew that the old woman's cane held a nasty silver-lined sword that she knew how to wield, and wield well. This shoddy little place was home to the greatest Seer in the witch world?

Ty almost sneered, but managed to keep his disdain to a minimum. Elspeth wouldn't like him insulting her friends. "Come, vampire, lets meet Alania. I warn you, she can be unnerving at times."

Walking up the gravel pathway, Elspeth and Ty reached the dusty doorway. The old witch knocked several times, in a pattern. Ty guessed this was a sort of pattern. He memorized it for later, in case he needed something from Alania himself some day.

Elspeth glanced over at Ty. "Don't try memorizing the knock pattern. It changes every day." Ty cursed silently. That old woman was far too perceptive.

The door opened almost of its own accord. Elspeth and Ty stepped over the threshold. A woman with large, dark eyes and chocolate skin sat on a chair in the middle of the nearly barren room. Her dark eyes were vacant, as if they weren't seeing the soap opera currently playing on the television. A soft, melodic voice drifted toward them.

"I'm not, you know. Seeing whats on the television. But its nice to hear it. I can see things far better in my head." Ty blinked. What the? "Yes, I can read your thoughts, bloodsucker. Your kind is not usually welcome here, but the Crone herself has brought you. The two of you, be welcome, be seated."

The blind Seer, Alania, spread her hands and gestured. A small glimmer of light illuminated two chairs to either side of the Seer. "I don't need light, nor does the vampire, but I wouldn't want my dear Elspeth to fall and trip over something." Alania smiled at the old woman warmly. Looking at her almost as if she knew exactly where in the room she was. She probably did. This woman was creepy. Even for a vampire like Ty.

"I know why you both have come. Give me the blood. I will do my best. It isn't often witches and shifters interbreed. This woman could well be the half-breed that my prophecy speaks of." Ty raised an eyebrow. Alania was the blind Maiden in the prophecy? So she was. Hm. And she had MADE the prophecy.

Elspeth handed over the small bit of blood that remained. "There is not a lot here. I would like to meet this girl in person. It would be interesting, don't you think, vampire?"

Ty jerked. She was talking to him? "Oh, yes, it would be. An oddity like her, I'd like to know more." Alania smiled at Ty. She reached out a hand to him. Ty hesitantly took it. The blind girl ran her small, delicate fingers over his palm.

"You yourself are an oddity. You've always embraced your vampire nature, never denying it in the slightest, yet you refuse to join the Council. Most vampires would jump if offered. You've declined." Alania stroked the vampire's cold hand. "Twice. I know I'm right. Whether you like it or not, you don't want to see the world destroyed. Thats why the Crone tolerates you when she will no other bloodsucker. I still don't like vampires. Good or bad, your eating habits just aren't my cup of tea." Ty jerked his hand away.

Lying sack of...no, not really. She was telling the truth. He didn't WANT the world to end. He liked his unlife the way it was now. Even though he was a bit lonely. Alania just patted his hand gently. "You'll find someone. I know. You won't be lonely forever. And in your case, forever can be quite a long time."

The vampire growled at her. "I'm not lonely. Just leave me alone. I don't know why I came here. This is stupid. You're just making shit up."

Elspeth put her hand on Ty's arm. "Dear Master Ty, please sit. She didn't mean to upset you."

Ignoring the anger radiating from the vampire, Elspeth held out the blood to Alania. The blind seer took the small cup. The blood inside was dried, but blood is blood, and one of the most powerful reagents on earth for divination. Alania stuck a small finger in the cup and scraped off a bit of the dried blood with a long nail. On the small coffee table before her, there was a small silver bowl that Ty hadn't noticed earlier. It was filled with an odd silvery liquid.

Alania dipped her finger in the bowl. A reddish stain appeared in the silver liquid. The seer place her hand on the silver/red liquid. The liquid coated her palm, soaking into it. Gasping, she jerked, almost spilling the bowl. Her black eyes went white. Ty watched with interest. Was she having a seizure or a vision? He didn't know or care. She had pissed him off. After a few short minutes, she pulled her hand free of the bowl, but not without some trouble.

Her hand and most of her bare arm were coated with the silver/red liquid. "It is...horrible. She...the poor child. You want me to tell you this girl's history? I cannot. Will not. She has been hurt deeply. She doesn't trust easily. Get out. I have never seen such horror. I must be alone to deal with it. It is as if I was there myself. The pain..." The seer shook her head. "Get out. Leech, crone, begone."

Ty left without being told twice. He didn't care for this girl or her supposed seeing abilities. Elspeth on the other hand was not so easily swayed.

"Alania, get ahold of yourself. You've seen bloody visions of the end of the world? Could it really be that much worse?" Alania shook. Unwilling to answer the old witch. Elspeth sighed. She was likely to get nothing more out of the seer. Alania hadn't been much help at all.


	3. Chapter 3

_**AN: **Time skip here. It takes place three weeks after the last chapter ended. Introduces a new character. No Sam and Dean yet, but they're probably going to show up in the next chapter. All of this was pre-written, so I'm posting rather quickly. I like reading stories that are longer and more complete than short with no resolution. I usually write complete short stories with a tidy ending because of that._

_**Prophecy – Chapter 3**_

+ Zach liked his new landlord; the man was open and friendly and appeared to be honest, which was rare in Vegas. He hummed happily as he unpacked his essential belongings. He had a new job at a casino to get to this afternoon but for now he could start getting settled in. He set up his radio on the kitchen bench and plugged it in, tuning it into his favourite station and singing along with all the songs he knew as he pottered about, completely unaware he was horribly off-key. No one had yet had the heart to inform him that he was tone-deaf, so he sang on, oblivious. He met his first neighbour as he locked up to head for work.

She came out of an apartment only two doors down and across the hall, wearing, to his astonishment, a uniform for the same casino he was! And…she was kinda hot. She was tall, though not as tall as he was, and slender, with silky black hair and brown eyes. He gave her his best 'Hi! I'm a friendly guy!' grin, but wasn't sure it'd gone over very well. All he got in return was a small smile that disappeared pretty quickly as she went down the hall towards the lifts. Zach fell into step beside her, wondering how he was going to get her to open up. He knew girls found him intimidating because of his size, even though he'd barely harm a fly, so he turned to her as they waited for the lift and stuck out his hand.

"Hi, my name's Zach!"

He was starting to feel like a bit of an idiot, when she suddenly, briefly, returned his handshake. "I'm Kerowyn." Zach couldn't help giving her another happy grin. He decided not to press her for anymore today, she looked kind of down, and Zach wondered if she'd been dumped by her boyfriend or something. He hoped not, she looked like a really nice person.

The lift slowed, then stopped again on the third floor, and the doors opened to reveal…Zach grinned again, this time at the little kid who was waiting to get on the lift. She had black hair too, pulled back from her face into a ponytail. He wondered if she was Indian, or part Indian too, her skin tone suggested she might be, but what features he'd seen of her face seemed wrong for that.

She ignored Zach and Kerowyn, pressed the button for the ground floor, and stood near the panel with her back to the wall, crossing her arms. Zach wondered if she realised just how defensive she was being, without even saying anything. Of course, being human he didn't catch the body language passing between Lena and Kero, with Kero freezing in fear as soon as she'd spied the smaller, darker girl. Zach kept observing her as the lift started its way down again, then suddenly the smaller girl's head whipped around. As she glared into his eyes his thoughts scattered in a dozen different directions at once.

_She's tiny!  
Green eye…yellow eye.  
Evil eye, eye of the devil.  
Tattoo…awesome.  
__Where did she get that jacket? _

Zach felt his palms suddenly get sweaty and nearly collapsed in relief as the girl's eyes flickered away again, staring once more at the wall opposite her. _Wow. That was…weird. How could someone so little be so…intense?_ Zach suddenly realised he'd been staring at the girl and readied himself for another round of I-stare-you-die with the small being before him so he could apologise when the lift suddenly stopped and she left, zipping out of the door before they'd even opened properly. Zach just blinked as the doors slowly closed again and the lift continued down into the car garage of the building.

"Wow…that was…" Actually, Zach didn't have words to describe that encounter. He actually jumped as Kero said softly,

"She's scary."

_Woah, I totally forgot she was in here!_ He gave Kero his best 'cheer up sport' grin, "Aw, I don't think she's that bad, but I wasn't expecting her to be so…so…" He decided not to bother with a description. If there was a word to describe it, it wasn't in his vocabulary.

Lena wondered what the hell was with the giant that had been in the lift. He'd practically been…_radiating_ happiness. She wondered why Kero had been in the lift with him. Boyfriend? Lena was pretty sure that was unlikely, as he'd been human but one never really knew. More likely he just lived in their building as well. Lena put them to the back of her mind as she jogged through the traffic, on her way east. It'd only been a few days since she'd been shot, so going back to work now would be impossible for a human, and therefore suicide for her.

Even as isolated as she'd kept herself she'd still heard the stories of what the Night Council did to people who revealed the existence of the Night World, deliberately or inadvertently, and she had no wish for them to turn their sights on her, especially after the amount of interest she'd garnered from a leech who wasn't even a part of that Council. So that left her with at least a couple of weeks of…basically nothing. In the end she'd gotten out her map, thinking of going after a bounty or two but her eye had been caught by a large swatch of green just east of Las Vegas called Lake Mead National Recreation Area and she'd felt the undeniable desire to run free, as she had years ago. She didn't have to change like the werewolves in the human story books, but if she went too long on two legs she got restless, and even more tetchy than usual, so she decided to give herself a holiday in the recreation park.

Zach sipped his morning coffee as he read the local newspaper. Apparently there had been more Cat Sightings in the Lake Mead Park. He sat back and stared out of the window at the city outside. The sightings had started filtering into the city about three weeks ago, and were dismissed as crank sightings at first. Of course it didn't help that the first people to report the 5-foot tall coal-black Jaguar had been a bunch of twenty-something stoners but more recently there had been sightings from more reputable sources; park rangers, elderly fishermen seeing the monster cat drinking at the edge of a lake as they fished in the middle. A few pictures were taken, but like Loch Ness they were all indistinct and fuzzy and didn't amount to anything. The few pictures that were clear were only of giant paw-prints, which were easily fabricated, and of the carcasses of animals which had apparently become the dinner of some predator. The latter were a little harder to dismiss, but people generally accepted that there were packs of wild dogs or something living in the park.

_Actually…I haven't seen that girl for about three weeks either._ Zach was unsure of why he'd thought of that intense young woman he'd first met in the lift. Kerowyn had told him a few days later that her name was Lena and she apparently worked at the casino too. He glanced at his watch. Speaking of the casino, he'd better get moving if he didn't want to be late. He grinned; he liked working at the card tables, especially since he'd been given the table next to Kero. She still didn't say much of anything, but he was determined to at least be friends with her.

Lena let herself into the Employees Only section of the casino and went to her locker. She still wasn't sure that she'd taken enough time away, but she'd wrapped a bandage around her shoulder as a precaution. Actually she was slightly surprised that she still had a job here to begin with, but apparently she was allowed to pick up her 'trial week' right where she'd left off. She slipped off her everyday clothes and folded them neatly, placing them on the shelf in her locker before putting on her uniform, ignoring the stares from the other women currently in the room. What, surely they'd known someone who'd been shot before?

She slipped her sunglasses on and went out to meet Al. He looked nervous, but then, so did everyone she'd come near since she'd come back from the Park. Lena wasn't really sure why, but they all seemed to want to keep their distance…well more than usual anyway. Al gave her a voice-activated throat microphone and an ear-piece. She hadn't been given one on her first day, he told her, because they hadn't had one. She shrugged and slipped the items on as she made her way out to the casino.

It was about 10pm when it happened. Two of Zach's customers got rowdy, and decided they didn't like him, or his dealing. He did his best to talk them down, but then one of the ones from Kero's table joined in, stirring them up more. _Crap, what the hell am I supposed to do?!_

Lena saw what was happening from across the room. A quick glance around showed her no one else had noticed it yet, and she was the closest anyway. She sighed; couldn't these people just behave themselves? She started slipping through the crowd and was halfway there when it started to get really rowdy and the security team watching the cameras finally noticed what was going on.  
"Lena, do you copy?" It sounded like Al, but she couldn't be sure. These ear-pieces made everyone sound like Daffy Duck or the Chipmunks. She didn't bother to answer, already knowing what was going to be asked.

"Lena? Damnit Lena, where are you? There's trouble near the card tables, looks like three guys, if you can hear me head there, whoever else is closest should go in and back her up."

A glance told her two of the trouble-makers were human. The last looked like a reptilian shifter, but he was only sitting on the sidelines egging the other two on so she decided he was secondary. For now anyway. The first thing she did was dodge in between the two combatants, spinning one around and forcing the second into a somersault over her hip which ended with him sprawling face-first onto the floor. She kept him down there by stepping on the back of his neck with one booted foot in time to sway back from the haymaker thrown her way by the second human. She grabbed his wrist and twisted, locking up his wrist, then his elbow and using her leverage on his arm to turn him slowly and get him into a full arm-lock.

He froze as everyone around them stared at her in astonishment. Well everyone except those who were a part of the Night World and knew what she was. The whole thing had taken roughly ten seconds or so and she'd used only her 'uninjured' arm. She glanced up to see another security guard making his way towards her through the crowd of gamblers and caught sight of a pinched, pointed face with long red hair. It looked like that leech the old hag kept, what was his name…_bah, what does it matter what his __name is? Not like I care._ She spoke so the rest of the security detail knew what was happening.

"Three people at the card tables wish to be escorted to the exit. Two fighters subdued, one shit stirrer too stupid to make his exit." The reptilian shifter twitched, then gave a weak grin. She was right after all, he should have moved the minute he saw her but…

Zach just stared at the tiny woman in front of him. Who would've thought that that tiny girl could have done something like this? And it looked like she lived in his building too, she seemed to be…wilder than the last time he'd seen her too. His brain replayed Lena's part in the fight. _Actually, thinking back it's not so much of a surprise that she managed that. Nothing she did required true strength, just the right amount of leverage._

What made it truly amazing, in his book, was that she'd done it all with just her left arm. He watched as Lena let the other security people take the three troublemakers outside as she moved over to Kero, who looked absolutely terrified, then glance around suspiciously. He figured Lena had told her something, but had no idea what.

Lena moved alongside Kero, ignoring the avian's obvious discomfort, and pulled the microphone away from her throat before speaking quietly so only the other shifter could hear. "Why is that leech here?" Kero just blinked at her with wide eyes, everything about her body language saying 'I'm terrified of you, and have no idea what you're talking about'. Lena frowned slightly and murmured "the leech the old hag keeps around is here." Then Al chose that moment to call her over the ear-piece so she left the –clean-up to someone else and began to make her way to the room where all the security camera footage was viewed.

* Kero's life had returned to relatively normal after Lena had left Gran Harman's shop. She went back to her apartment, shifter attacks hadn't ceased, but they had subsided enough that Thea didn't throw a hissy fit and screech when Kero insisted on going back to her apartment and going alone. Honestly, Kero was still mad at Thea for getting her into trouble with the old lady. Thea seemed to realize this and had apologized several times, but Kero had ignored her.

She wasn't ready to forgive the irritating little witch yet. The avian shifter went back to her life in the simple apartment and the casino. Thea's cousin had finally called Kero, but she said she didn't know much of anything. Sarantia would be able to tell Kero more when she made her own trip to Vegas, which, according to her, would be in a couple weeks. Circle business had caught her up and she couldn't make it soon.

Kero sighed, returning to the present. She glanced at her watch, fiddled with it. Thinking about the young man she'd met in the elevator, the casino, and pretty much anywhere he could manage to ambush her. He'd insisted on telling her his name and thought she wanted to be friends. She did want friends, but not with a human. If only because she would spend more time worrying about him being killed by being friends with a shifter than actually being his friend. Still, his cheerful persistence started to get on her nerves. Kero wondered if he'd chosen the card table next to hers on purpose.

Kero jerked as one of her customers started to get nasty. He wasn't mad at her, seemingly, but at her wanna-be friend Zach. Kero nervously licked her lips. She was stronger than the people at the tables, maybe. One smelled vaguely like a shifter of some type. Not wanting to get involved, but not wanting Zach to be hurt, Kero hoped a member of security would intervene soon. Her silent wishes were answered, but not in the form she had hoped. Her heart pounded, as if trying to escape her chest. Lena was a security guard here?

Kero groaned. She wasn't as skittish as people thought avian shifters were, but she still had a fight-or-flight instinct, and as a bird, it was usually flight. Lena especially put the _flyawaynoworyou'llbeeaten_ image into her head. The fight was over quickly, and thankfully Zach wasn't hurt. He did have a shocked look on his face though. Watching Lena fight would do that to a person. Humans didn't normally see someone so small kick the asses of three much larger men.

Kero gasped as Lena came toward her. _What? What could she want? I was just doing my job._ "Why is the leech here?" Kero blinked, too terrified to answer her, and not even knowing what she was talking about.

There were likely many leeches in this place, but they kept to themselves. "The leech the old hag keeps around is here." Kero was puzzled. Why would that vampire be here? He was old, and wealthy, and didn't need a job. And yet...Kero looked up, and saw him threading his way through the crowd, an intense look on his face, while wearing a security uniform. Kero glanced back to Lena, but she was gone. Great. A leech and a predator and a FIGHT, all in one day. Her normal life was slowly being shattered again. She wondered if she should make up with Thea and Gran.

Ty growled his frustration. Lena had disappeared before he'd managed to get to her. He had spent several weeks and quite a good deal of money and resources on an attempt to locate the wild girl. One of his sources had turned up the information that she'd worked at this casino on security duty for a short time before an injury had put her out of commission. _Injury, my ass. Elspeth had healed that injury. _He noticed the bird girl also worked here.

She was staring at him with a terrified expression on her face. Why was this place such a Night World magnet? Well, it was Vegas. Most Night people could blend in without being discovered. The bird girl leaned over and said something to the large man working the table next to hers. Ty didn't bother trying to listen. He didn't care about the bird or her human buddy. He only cared about finding Lena. Alania's Seeing had interested him even more.

Lena remained mysterious, but now at least Ty knew something of her past. It was painful. Someone, or something, had hurt her deeply. Made her as hateful as she is. Ty intended to find out. Getting that out of Lena would be hard, but as Elspeth had told him, perhaps kind words would go a long way. Ty wasn't familiar with making kind words with anyone, let alone a hateful shifter. He sat down at a nearby table and sighed in frustration. He had taken this stupid job only because of Lena. She seemed to be avoiding all contact with him, and everyone else.

A little squeak caused him to lift his head. The bird girl was looking at him. He'd sat at her table. He almost felt bad. She was already terrified out of her wits due to Lena's presence.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. Ah...do you know which direction Lena went?" Kero shook her head.

"I-I'm sorry, T-Ty? Thats your name, isn't it? I didn't see. I looked up and she was gone. I-I'm really sorry." Kero hung her head. She didn't want to anger the vampire. Elspeth said he wouldn't hurt her, but that was in the old witch's home. There was nothing preventing him from draining her blood here and now.

"Its alright. I just...wanted to see her again, is all. Who's your friend?" Ty nodded his head toward the large young man at the next table over. Kero lowered her voice so that only Ty could here her. Fear for her wanna-be friend making her braver than usual. "Thats none of your business. He's human, but please don't feed from him. He's a nice guy. He's not your next meal."

Kero ended the sentence almost a threat. Ty almost laughed. The little bird was...threatening him? Well, she was getting bold. Ty was tempted to feed from him just to spite the little birdie and show her that her threat meant nothing. However, he had more important things to do. Like find Lena. A crackle in the earpiece that was standard for security around here told him that the manager wanted all security workers to the back. He hoped Lena was back there. Perhaps then he could confront her.

+ Alania listened as the quiet limousine rolled back down the gravel driveway as she huddled into herself. Truly, she had seen blood soaked visions of the end of the world but this…this was far more personal than that. Her divination of the girl, Lena, had been…Quietly she let the tears flow down her cheeks as she remembered. Her vision had been patchy, as they sometimes were, but she knew a few salient facts.

Lena was a twin, and the two had been extraordinarily close, communicating not long after they became aware of their surroundings, before they had even been born.  
Both had an extraordinary amount of love for one another, and their mother, who had had a habit of talking to them in a soft voice and stroking her pregnant belly.

It wasn't until after their birth that things had started to go downhill for Lena and her brother. In her mind's eye Alania constructed what she believed Lena to look like, based on the blood that the Crone had brought, once it was complete (minus the tattoo) she used her Seer's gift again, this time to create what her twin would have looked like. Unsurprisingly he looked exactly the same, but for a few anatomical differences. Then Alania examined her constructions more closely and realised they were actually mirror images of each other. With a shudder she remembered the ruckus that had occurred after the two were born. Separated from their mother, their fate discussed by the elders of their tribe while they, cold and hungry, were left to one side, comprehending their fate as their first feelings of hatred began to form.

Then, their ultimate fate of being left out in the wilderness for the animals to devour, with their now-dead mother who had been ritually killed by her own tribe, their stone talismans taken back to the village and used as memorials to the dead.

Alania's mind shuddered away from the memory of what had happened to them next, but nothing in the world could possibly make her forget the pain, both mental physical, Lena had suffered as the great beasts had eaten her mother's corpse and her living brother. The only thing Alania didn't understand was why the beasts hadn't eaten Lena too, as the next part of her vision had been of Lena actually living within this pack of beasts as one of them. What these beasts were was still unclear, but they were ferocious, nocturnal, and predators. All adjectives which would be perfect for describing Lena today.  
Shunned by her own people, the pack of beasts that had raised her in the beginning, humans, and even bandits all Lena had ever learned in life was that people could only be trusted to turn on her, sooner or later.

"The strong live and the weak die." Alania was surprised by her own voice, not realising she was speaking out loud. Perhaps that was the closest thing Lena had to a mantra. Alania sighed, wondering now if she truly wanted to meet Lena anymore and ran her mind over the second half of her prophecy.  
One from the land of kings long forgotten, fitted Lena, though she was unable to pinpoint exactly why she felt that way, perhaps it would help if she could have worked out where Lena's mother's people had come from. She was not really very sure exactly what Shifter history was like, maybe she should try to get a shifter to explain their history and bloodlines.

The second line, 'One from the hearth which still holds the spark', she was certain indicated a full-blood witch, not half like Lena was, and she appeared to have inherited far more of her mother than her father anyway. 'One from the Day World where two eyes are watching', 'two eyes'…Lena had two different coloured eyes, she'd had a twin, and parents from two very different peoples. If it wasn't for her hunch about the first line Alania would be certain Lena was the one who was described here. Alania sighed, beginning to doubt her own divination that this line indicated a half-breed. Perhaps she was wrong? Or perhaps Lena had nothing to do with the prophecy…maybe she was just a catalyst? 'One from the daylight to be one with the dark.' No, the final line referred to a full-blood shifter, of that she was certain.

Alania turned her blind eyes back to the coffee table and the dish which still held Lena's blood. No, she was not willing to find out more about her that way, it was too much. She could only hope that the vampire the Crone tolerated could find out more.

Lena got to what was affectionately known as the 'video shack' just as Al's second called the rest of the security detail into the briefing office for some reason. She shrugged and let herself into the security room, confident that she was exempt from the other call, but to be sure she questioned Al.

"Oh, don't worry about that, Mac just threw a fit that you were the one who took care of those trouble-makers. I think he wants to berate the others for not being there to take care of it for you."  
Lena just snorted. "I don't need his help."

"Yeah, I know. Looking at the footage, you barely moved your right shoulder, so I figure you'd've been okay even if you'd come back last week. Oh, and congratulations on taking care of that in record time."  
"Are you done yet?" Lena never was one for praise or soft words. They always turned out to be hollow words, sooner or later.

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. I'm done. The next shift has already gone out to the floor so you can go home if you want."

Lena took a circuitous route to go home, just in case, and was not disappointed. The damn leeches were after her, again, but this one seemed weaker, or just stupider, than the last one. Though…she thought she caught a hint of a second follower, one who was far better at what he did than the first. Lena ducked into an alley and waited. It was only a moment or two before her follower appeared. When he saw her waiting he grinned, and brought up a silenced pistol.

"Just give up, little beast. I'm packing silver bullets, if I shoot you, you'll die." Lena just flicked her wrist, sending one of her daggers flying through the space between them to lodge into the vampire's forehead. _What's with the mobster threat? Does he honestly expect me to listen to that bullshit?_ Before he could recover Lena covered the distance between them and thrust her hand into his ribcage, wrapping her hand around his cold heart.

She gave him just enough time to realise what was going on before ripping out his heart and crushing it in her hand. _Oh, this is just disgusting!_ Apparently this vampire wasn't very old, as he didn't turn into dust or mould, but a decaying corpse. Lena wrinkled her nose and stepped back from the dead creature to clean off her dagger and arm on the corpse's jacket, about the only thing that was still clean.

A slow clapping sounded from before her as a familiar vampire stepped out of the darkness. It was the Crone's Leech, as Lena had begun to think of him. As he got closer Lena noticed he had a strange look on his face. It took her a few seconds to realise he was actually trying to smile. It looked more like a grimace.

He stopped clapping and widened his smile, which made him look like his teeth were hurting or something. "You really do make killing vampires look easy."

At first Lena said nothing, sending heat into the concrete beneath their feet towards the vampire. He jumped away with a surprised noise. "If you don't stop trying to stalk me I'll show you what it's like, up close and personal."

* Ty smiled once again. Lena threatening him. Poor girl didn't seem to know how to be anything but threatening and hateful. Hopefully she would get over that. Besides, he didn't think she would find killing him nearly as easy as these young ones that were sent after her. She may have bested him earlier, in Elspeth's house, where he was relaxed and off guard, but now he knew to expect a possible attack from Lena and was quite sure he could hold his own against her.

Perhaps not defeat her, but she wouldn't kill him with ease. Ty kicked the mouldering corpse of the dead vampire lying near them. This one was quite young. He can't have been over 30 years old. Vampires didn't turn to bone or dust until they were at least 100 years old. Ty himself would likely explode into a pile of dust instantly.

That was something he wasn't keen on experiencing any time soon, no matter how much Elspeth glorified death and moving on to the next life. The vampire wasn't sure he would like the place he would move on to. Even if it were like Elspeth said, and people just moved on to new bodies. He would likely be reincarnated as a roach or something equally useless and stupid. Or perhaps a real leech.

Ty almost laughed at the prospect. He shook his head, shaking himself out of his inner monologue. "I'm not stalking you, Lena. I know how you hate vampires. Is it so wrong to have someone to talk to, though? No, I'm not volunteering to be your psychologist, if thats what you're thinking. I just want to talk to you without having my life threatened at every turn. Surely, there is a lot more to you than threats and violence. Miss Harman spoke to a Seer about you. She had some interesting things to say."

Ty put up his hand, hoping Lena wouldn't growl at him for this, since it wasn't his doing. "She insisted I come with her, I didn't ask to. I don't want to hurt you. I just want to know more about your past. Where do you come from? What made you the way you are? The Seer was in no condition to speak after her vision of you."

Ty glanced at his watch. It would be daylight soon. The sun didn't cause him to burst into flames as it did many younger vampires, but it was still uncomfortable to be caught out in. He didn't really want a bad sunburn. "Come with me. To my house. I won't try to feed from you, and if you're not comfortable there, then we can go to Miss Harman's. Perhaps, with your help, we can figure out why the vampires are so keen on attempting to murder you violently." The vampire didn't expect her to agree with him, but he had to try.

+ Go with him? What was he crazy?! As if she would! She didn't want anything to do with him, the old hag or anyone else for that matter. She just wanted to live her life. The only reason she didn't go back to the jungle was that she wanted to see more of the world than just the permanent twilight of the jungle floor. The Crone's Leech wanted to know about her still? Hadn't he found something else to catch his passing interest yet? She saw him look at his watch and couldn't help but sneer.

"What's the matter _old man_, don't want to work on your tan?" She briefly considered attacking him, then put that thought aside. He was stronger than that other idiot and could probably hold his own, at least in the dark. She wasn't sure what would happen to him in the sunlight, though it would probably prove to be amusing.

"As for the vampires you seem to have provided the old bag with the answer _last_ time I was in her den, so there'd be no point in me going there even if I wanted to." She turned to walk away, taking a risk that he'd try to force her but she didn't think he would. Even if he did she was aware of his presence and concentrating on him so if he tried anything she'd know about it and be able to fight back. "Besides, I answered your questions weeks ago. If you were too stupid to ask any relevant questions then it's not my fault, or my problem."

Lena walked to the other end of the alleyway and casually merged with the human traffic there, keeping pace with them. _I'll wait until after sunrise to go back to my apartment._ That should keep the bloodsucker away from her door, for at least a bit longer anyway. No doubt he was greasing palms to discover where she worked, so it was probably just a matter of time before he found her living space…but there were ways and ways to discourage his presence in the building. Some of them were even potentially painful for him.

Zach stared. _What…just what in hell just happened?_ The intense kid from the elevator, three weeks ago, was a security guard in his casino? _Man, she kicks arse!_ And against three grown men who were at least twice her size! Zach realised his mind was going around in circles as Kero leaned over to make sure he was alright. He gave her a big grin and a nod as a sharp-featured and sinister-looking man in a security uniform sat at Kero's table in a huff.

She jumped and spoke to him quietly as Zach realised she was scared of him. Come to think of it…Kero had reacted in a similar way to Lena. He'd've thought she was skittish but for the fact that he'd seen her interact with other customers, some of them even meaner-looking than the red-haired man (_What is this guy, a hippie? Dude, get a haircut!_) and she hadn't batted an eyelid. He went back to dealing as the customers settled down and went back to their gambling. Only in Vegas could people see others threatened with their lives then go back to gambling in minutes. Hopefully he could catch Kero before she drove home after their shift.

Zach ran towards his car. Kero was parked a little closer and hopefully she hadn't left yet. He'd gotten caught up with security after his shift to make a report on what had happened before the fight broke out and now…He felt a surge of relief as he saw Kero just getting in her car.

"Kerowyn!" She jerked and looked around in surprise as he shouted to her. Something indecipherable passed across her face before she settled on the pleasantly polite face she always wore when he spoke to her. He briefly wondered why, he only wanted someone to hang out with, not like he wanted to date her. He put that aside for the moment as he finally got to her car, not even out of breath.

"Kerowyn, remember those guards that came to the fight? The girl from our building and the long-haired hippy? They haven't hurt you or anything have they? If they threaten you, just tell me and I'll set them straight for you okay?"

* Ty sighed. He knew she'd disagree. Sunrise was close. The vampire decided it was futile to pursue her any further tonight. He was likely only to get a "sun tan" as Lena had put it. Old man...Ty flinched. How dare she! He was old, yes, but he didn't look old. Ty sighed again, tiredly this time. It was time to feed quickly and get back to his home before sunrise before he fell into the coma-like sleep most vampires couldn't stave off during the day.

Ty could hold off the daylight "death" longer than most, but it would come eventually. He'd never had a full day in daylight. Perhaps when he was two thousand he'd get to watch daytime television. Ty shuddered at the though. Or perhaps that wasn't something to hope for. The infomercials he was forced to watch at 2am on the non-satellite channels numbed his mind enough, he didn't need soap operas too. Turning away from the traffic, and Lena's fading backside, he made his way out the other end of the alleyway. He glanced back at the not-quite-dust vampire corpse Lena had left in her wake.

It was decaying and smelled badly. It would likely attract the cops. While a decaying corpse wasn't out of the ordinary, he still didn't want a vampire body in the hands of mortal authorities. Steeling himself against the smell, Ty tore into the corpse, using his preternatural strength and speed to make mincemeat of it. He picked up the pieces and dropped them into a nearby dumpster. Anyone coming by would merely think it was the smell of rotting food or a dead animal in the garbage.

Now Ty _really_ needed to get home. He wanted to take a shower before going to sleep. Still, there was the matter of feeding. His fangs were almost aching. He needed to feed every day, otherwise the end result was a very painful bloodlust. Painful for both Ty and his victim. He picked a homeless man that smelled strongly of alcohol. The man was passed out, so it was very easy to drag him into the shadows and sink his fangs into the pulse at his neck. The blood had a slight taste of mortal whiskey, but it did much to ease his hunger. He was tempted to kill the man, but the approaching sunrise rushed him to finish as soon as he was full and satisfied, and the relief of the bloodlust put him in a good mood.

Dropping the unconscious drunk, Ty stuffed a few hundred dollar bills in the old drunk's front pocket. He would likely use it to buy more whiskey, but what did Ty care. He was feeling good enough right now to at least pay the man for his unintentional blood donation. He pulled out his cell and dialed one of his chauffeurs. The servants and others he employed were either younger vampires looking for a way to make money or bored witches and shifters.

This one was a witch, since his vampire chauffeurs were asleep by now. His witch driver arrived quickly, since Ty only lived about 5 miles away. Despite his recent feeding, he was beginning to feel groggy and weak. He stumbled into the vehicle and lay back against the seat with his eyes closed. A burning sensation made him open his eyes. Dawn. The sun was rising over the horizon. Ty stared at it for a while, even though it made his eyes water. Sunrise was always beautiful, no matter how painful.

The driver came around and opened his door, peering concernedly at the vampire. "Sir? Are you okay? Do you need help making it inside?" Ty waved the witch away. "No, Tobias, I'm fine. You can take the car, park it, and go home. I'll be sleeping until dusk, or well past." With some effort, he made it inside to his windowless bedroom and collapsed onto his bed, instantly falling into a corpselike state.

**The bird was shocked. Was this young man offering to...protect her? What the hell? No one had offered to protect her in her entire life, except her parents, who were dead, and Gran Harman, who was Thea's grandmother, not hers. Especially not a human. A human protecting a shifter, even an avian shifter, was ludicrous. He was nice, though, and handsome. She couldn't just blow him off.

"Uhm, thanks, sir, but I'll be fine. They didn't hurt me or anything. And the long-haired guy is kind of a friend." Kero inwardly winced at calling the vampire friend. "He was just asking if I was okay after that tussle. I'm fine, really, and I'll be fine. Goodbye. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow."

She smiled at him, hoping desperately she didn't offend him, and got in her car. She'd had the crappy overnight shift tonight. The sun was rising over the buildings steadily. Kero left out a sigh of relief. No vampires would be out. It was too early...or was it late...for them. The avian shifter drove home feeling almost at peace and not at all tired. Perhaps she would go for a flight when she got back to her apartment.

Pulling into the parking lot of the building, she almost felt cheerful. It was odd, having someone offer to protect you. Odd, and...nice. She jerked as she almost bumped into a familiar figure. It was the blonde witch from earlier. Kero's peaceful feeling faded. This man left her with a sinister feeling. There was something not-quite-nice about him. He grinned at her, in a wicked kind of way, and pushed past her. Kero jerked as the male witch laid a heavy hand on her shoulder.

"Be careful, little bird. There are things in this apartment building that you don't want to draw the attention of."

Kero lipped her lips nervously. "L-like what, s-sir? I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." The male witch simply gave her another wicked grin, waved sardonically, and walked away, sliding into a nearby dark limo.

Kero shuddered, her heart pounding. Was that a threat or a warning? The witch had never harmed her, and she'd never felt any danger at all from the people in her apartment building. Except Lena, but Kero didn't think Lena would hurt her anymore. That didn't stop her being afraid of her, though. Kero shook herself from the trance she'd been in, and walked into her building.

She took the elevator up to her floor and entered her apartment. She checked her answering machine and almost smashed it. Fifteen messages. She could guess who they were from. Kero had no desire to talk to Thea or to hear her shrill voice right now. She flopped down on the couch and turned on the TV. The phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. Thea again. She picked up the phone and immediately hung up.

+ Zach stared at Kero's car as she drove away. He couldn't shake the niggling feeling that she was hiding something from him, and not just about the long-haired guy, but at least she seemed okay. Still a little shaken up, but okay. "Some friend," he muttered, as he made his way over to his own car. It wasn't until he was sitting in the driver's seat that it hit him.

"Wait! She's still calling me 'sir'!" Making a comical face as he ran his hands through his hair he wondered if Kero would ever just call him by his name. Zach wasn't exactly one to stand on formality after all.

Elspeth brewed tea as she waited for her other guests to arrive. From what Ty had told her he'd managed to get a job at the same casino Lena was a security guard in. It also happened to be the same casino Kero worked in. Elspeth wondered if it was a coincidence or not. From what she could gather Lena also lived in the same building as Kero too, but Elspeth thought that the other girl had been as unhappy about that as Kero was so it was unlikely that Lena had done this deliberately. She glanced out to the living area to see Thea trying to get Kero to talk…without much luck. Apparently Kero was still fuming over Thea getting them both into trouble with Elspeth…_goodness, that was almost a month ago now, wasn't it? How time moves quickly._ Elspeth had forgiven the avian, mainly because she felt that she should have taken Kero into confidence far sooner.

"Thea! Come over here and finish getting out the cakes and biscuits. I don't want our guests to feel as though we are neglecting them!" Her granddaughter jumped as she barked orders at the young witch. _If only she would apply her brain a little more by thinking before she acts on every little impulse or whim that flutters through her mind._ Elspeth watched as Thea did as she was told, "Thea, the person coming here tonight is revered as a shifter Elder. You will _not_ say anything to them unless you are first spoken to, understand me?"

"Yes, Gran." Satisfied her wayward apprentice was thoroughly cowed into submission (for now) Elspeth turned back to Kero.

"I hope you don't mind, dear, but I invited Ty again too. I realise you don't like him, in honesty I don't either, but he may have knowledge that can help us." A knock sounded from the stairs. "That will be him now." Elspeth went to greet the vampire and let him in. As she guided him back to the living area he brought her up to date on his progress in getting Lena to talk to him…or not.

"She doesn't seem to know how to be anything other than threatening and hateful." Elspeth heard another knock. "Please make yourselves comfortable. I'll go let our guest in."

"There's no need, Lady Harman." The person who said this spoke in a deep bass rumble, that sounded as if it came from somewhere around the speaker's navel. Elspeth turned, shocked to see a surprisingly young shifter standing in the doorway to the living room. "I hope you don't mind us letting ourselves in, your door was unlocked." From Kero's expression, this young thing was a predatory shifter. He was tall, taller than Ty, with mahogany-coloured skin, dark brown hair and coffee-coloured eyes.

"Our kind are not generally in the habit of associating with vampires, especially of late. However this is your home, Lady Harman, and I understand that _this_ particular vampire actually saved the life of one of my clansmen." Elspeth was beginning to wonder if this young man was the Elder when a cracked and aged voice carried across the room from behind him.

"Indeed." The first shifter stepped aside from the doorway to reveal two others, a female of medium height with short red hair and pretty grey eyes whose arm was in the grip of what could only be called an ancient man. At least, Elspeth thought it was a man. Whoever it was, he…she…they looked as old as the Pharaohs. The first shifter to have entered the room introduced the newcomer.

"Lady Harman, may I present to you Elder Samuel." At least now she knew what sex the elder was. His leathery, age-spotted skin was so wrinkled it looked like he had wrinkles on his wrinkles. Once upon a time she thought he probably would have been quite tall, but age had hunched him over. He smiled in her direction and she realised his eyes were almost as white as his hair. She'd never seen a blind shifter before.

She waited while the female guided Elder Samuel over to an armchair and helped him to sit. From Kero's expression the girl was unlikely to be a predator. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the male take up a position by the door. Assistant and bodyguard. Interesting…although when she thought about it, it made sense, what with all the vampire attacks on shifters recently.

"Now, then young lady, what is it you, a powerful witch, wishes to hear from a humble _T'sa'hy_ Elder like me?"

Elspeth wondered how she should word her request, she felt she needed to be discreet, but at the same time she really had no idea of what would or would not offend the shifter elder. She really didn't have much to do with them after all. She briefly wondered why he had called her a 'young lady'.

"Recently a young shifter woman was injured in a vampire attack," she decided to begin with setting the scene for Lena. "She killed her attacker but was wounded and brought to me for healing." She paused as the Elder waited patiently. "I have not had much to do with your people over my lifetime and generally that has been limited to healings but Lena…Lena seems to be entirely different to any other shifters I have ever come across."

"'Lena'…I do not recognise this name." Both of Samuel's companions shook their heads as well. Elspeth guessed this meant that they didn't know her either.

"I didn't expect you would, she only came to Vegas recently, and from what Ty has told me, barely associates with anyone, far less her own kind. Indeed, she seems to hold a special hatred for shifters." Samuel's bushy white eyebrows rose at this.

"Does she now? I have never heard of one _T'sa'hy_ hating all others. Please, continue."

"I…have an interest in the girl. It saddens me to see one so young already so embittered to the world. I was hoping that you could explain to me some of your people's history, where the different families come from, so that perhaps we could figure out what has happened to Lena, and perhaps show her that she can love the world as well as hate it."

Samuel bowed his head as he thought about Elspeth's explanation. "So it would seem, so it would seem. It also occurs to me that perhaps a meeting such as this should have occurred some time ago. Perhaps the information we have would enable you to find those whom you seek, faster." He turned his head towards Thea. "Young one, you have a question. Your desire to know the answer to this question makes you quiver. Ask."

"Well, Elder Samuel, I just wanted to know what 'saw-hah' meant. I've never heard that word before."

He smiled at her. "That is one of our own tongue, child. '_T'sa'hy_ are what your people name 'shapeshifter'. My people." He gave her another gentle smile before turning to Kero. "And you, child, need not fear my companions. Neither of them would ever harm you. Not here, nor in the street should you meet. It has been a long time since _T'sa'hy_ clans fought each other…but I digress. Lady Elspeth, the history of each of the different clans is highly variable and probably not helpful to you. The only ones you could tell you about Lena's clan are they. However I can give you…how would you say it, an 'overview' of our bloodlines and how we came to where we are today."

Elspeth nodded, forgetting he couldn't see the action, "I believe that would be most helpful, if you would."

The old man sat back in his chair "So much that could be told…where and how to begin is perhaps the hardest part. Very well. Did you know that _T'sa'hy_ have a potential lifespan of almost 300 years?"

He simply nodded as his listeners inhaled in surprise. "I did not think that you would realise this. I myself have recently celebrated living 250 years, but the average life expectancy of my people is less than a fifth of what I have attained. Many of the premature deaths are due to vampire attacks." None of the three visiting shifters so much as glanced at Ty. "A few are due to witches, from the Dark Coven."

The silence was beginning to drag out when the old man shook himself out of his reverie again. "In this day, there are two common types of _T'sa'hy_. Those of the Royal Houses and those who are not, and many of the Royal Houses appear to be dwindling. Our own researches have determined that both of these are all descended from what is known as the 'Old Royal Bloodlines'." If he noticed Elspeth, Thea, Kero and Ty sit up at this he paid no attention to it.

"There is not much known about these bloodlines but we believe that they too were all originally from one family which eventually spread out across the globe and over time diversified to better adapt to their environments. There were seven of these Old Royals in the beginning."

Samuel looked over at Kero, and smiled, "Ask, my child."

"Um…why seven?"

It was the male shifter, still over by the doorway who answered her, in a voice almost as soft as her own had been. "Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America."

Samuel nodded. "Nicholas is correct. There was one family on each of the continents. Now, however…" he sighed. "How and why those bloodlines ceased to exist, for the most part, is not clear. Some of our scholars believe that the families interbred with other races, humans and witches, and the bloodlines were watered down somewhat, others say the witches had a far more active role in their downfall through magical means; another theory is that they were hunted by vampires." He nodded in Ty's direction again.

"Whatever the case of those seven, we believe that only two remain; in the depths of Africa and Asia, far from modern society, living the same way they did thousands of years ago." He paused again and sniffed the air.

"I can smell the scent of excitement in the air. You think this child is from one of the old bloodlines?"  
"Isn't it possible?" Elspeth could barely contain herself, "if, that is, you think the South American bloodline survived?"

Samuel frowned as he thought. "I suppose it is possible that they did, however the Spanish were rather thorough in their extermination of families held as royal in South America…we sent word to the South American kings that should they need to evacuate we would help them resettle in what is now the US…but no one ever came. As I recall that bloodline was perhaps the most stubborn of them all…"

The pretty red-headed shifter spoke for the first time in a light, musical voice "Great-father, the Brazilian Government has a policy of sending out search parties to make contact with stone-age tribes in the Amazon. It wasn't all that long ago that there was another one discovered. If they made their way deep into the jungle perhaps the Spanish didn't find them, _maybe_ they survived?"

* The old shifter's words rang in Kero's ears over and over again. Ancient bloodlines, surviving to the current day. That might explain why Lena could transform into a mythical beast. Or a real beast, as she claimed it was. Kero was still pissed at Thea for getting her in trouble, though Elspeth seemed to be not nearly as angry at her as before. Perhaps she should make up with Thea. The old shifters had left, and Kero's shyness caused her to lose out on another opportunity.

She had wanted to ask if it was possible to transform into prehistoric versions of her avian form. She was mentally kicking herself. The vampire had caused part of her inability to speak much, if at all. She couldn't remember much of what she had done. Only the conversation between Elspeth and the other shifters. She lay back in the bed of Elspeth's guestroom. The witch had told her to stay the night again. This was becoming as much her home lately as her own apartment.

She heard Elspeth and the vampire talking downstairs. She turned over and smashed a pillow in her ears, attempting to go to sleep and ignore them. Her sensitive shifter ears, however, let her down. They were discussing Lena again, and what had transpired earlier. Kero shoved the pillow against her ears even harder. The poor pillow nearly busted. She closed her eyes, thinking of Zach, and how he had seemed to want to be her friend.

Ty rubbed his eyes wearily. Sunrise was still a few hours away, but tonight's business had been tiring. Being in a room full of ancient, powerful shifters had really tested his control. So Lena was possible from an old royal bloodline. That raised as many questions as it had answered.

"Elspeth, if she is indeed one of the ancient bloodlines, can she shift into anything, not just cats? And does this make her more or less likely to be one of the wild powers?" Elspeth shrugged. "It does not make her more or less likely. But yes, I believe it does mean she is capable of becoming any animal. I wonder if she knows...probably not. If she did, why didn't she say anything? Most of the royal house knows of their abilities, but if she was raised without knowing her heritage...perhaps that explains it."

The vampire nodded. "That makes sense. I tried getting her to come back here, to answer more questions, but she declined. Of course, I didn't expect her to agree with a vampire. Perhaps you would have better luck, Miss Harman."

The witch sighed. "I don't think so. I did her a favor, but she paid me, and then some. I don't think we can expect much more out of her."

The vampire sighed. As he expected. Even Elspeth would have a hard time getting any more information out of her. "Thank you Miss Harman. Sorry for intruding on your home for so long. I know you only barely tolerate my presence." He flashed a little fang in a small smile. "I'll go home, grease a few palms, find out what I can dig up about her past. She has to have some kind of record, even if she wasn't born in the US."

The vampire turned, and walked out and to his car. Elspeth sighed. She put up with the leech far more than she should. But he was very good at what he did. He was very wealthy, and could usually bribe just about anyone for information. If not with money, then with threats to drain their blood and leave them for dead. The witch didn't like vampires at all, and Ty was very amoral at times, but he was probably the best vampire she'd met. By best, she meant nicest, which was saying something, because Ty wasn't exactly nice. Elspeth wished Lena had left her a phone number. She wished to call the girl and let her know what she had found out about her possible bloodline.

+ Lena plotted ways to make her building vampire proof, but had to eventually settle for making it vampire deterrent instead. Most of her best ways to discourage vampires would likely kill the human inhabitants, and while she didn't really care for them one way or another, it would cause her trouble. Her apartment was thoroughly rigged, naturally, especially around the windows and balcony doors.

The rooms she used were not as well done, but she'd rather expect them to come in through entrances other than the main door so that wasn't so much of a problem. To cause them the most discomfort, however, she spent most of the rest of her cash on UV lights, working on the theory that it was the UV component of sunlight that really caused vampires to spontaneously combust. She didn't install any of these lights in the lobby, but she did put them in the lifts, emergency stairs, her own apartment, and the halls of several floors, including her own. At the very least these lights should make a vampire extremely uncomfortable and even take the edge of his or her abilities.

She put in the last light and pondered her next move. Being "injured" as she was the casino wouldn't let her work more than two shifts a week, and the other one wasn't for a couple of days yet. _I wonder if this city has any bounties around? It's certainly big enough for at least a couple, even if they're small fry._ If there were no human ones she could always search out preternatural ones, they were always more fun too. More of a challenge. Decision made she grabbed her pack and went down to the lobby, passing a tall blond witch at the elevator.

As she flipped through the phone book by the pay phone she watched him from the corner of her eye. There was something about him…something dark that told her to watch him carefully. She memorised his scent, just in case, as she finally found the entry she was looking for. Most big cities had bars, nightclubs or simple coffee shops that catered almost exclusively to bounty hunters and Vegas was no different, having at least one of each. You couldn't get in unless you were a licensed hunter, or with one, and they contained up-to-date information on all the latest bounties for the area, and you could get info on bounties from other areas too. Lena decided today would be a good day as she stepped out into the sunshine. She was fit, healthy; there was money to be made and not a bloodsucker in sight.

The hired private detective slid a dismally thin folder across the table of the coffee shop to his client…or rather, his client's representative. Not that it mattered. He was being paid, and paid damn well for his time on this case. Too well really for the anorexic manila folder that sat between them. The other man looked at it in disdain. "Is this it?"

The detective just sighed, knowing that that comment had been coming. "Honestly, bub, I was hoping for more too. Everything I could find is in there, and most of it's from the last three, almost four, years, and even that's a little scarce. The rest is rumour, hearsay, and raving lunatics."

Ty's witch employee raised an eyebrow at this. This detective was well-known to be one of the best in the business who had resources all over the world. Of course he wasn't the only one who had been hired, but… "Please give me an overview of what you found."

The detective sat back, "well, it's all in there, but you're paying so why not? I started with the information I could get from Customs and Immigration from three years back when she first appeared on the US grid. Just wandered out of the bush with only what she stood up in and demanded to take the tests for US citizenship, a bike license and bounty hunter's certification all in one breath. From what I could gather they let her do it because they thought it would be amusing. Been a slow week and all that. Much to their chagrin she passed all three with flying colours, despite having apparently no formal education at all."

He took the folder back and flipped through a few pages before finding what he wanted and sliding the open document back so his companion could see it. It was a map of the US with about a dozen or so marks on it, most in the lower South-Eastern corner. "As you can see, Vegas is about as far north as she's ever been recorded. Lives off-grid. Paid a power bill here, her licenses here, turned in bounties here, here and here, was witness to an assault there, and so on." As he listed off where Lena had popped up over the years he pointed out the relevant areas before turning the page. Now they could see a map of South America.

There were four marks.

"As you can see, before she came to the US she lived even further off the grid. I got a contact down that way to trawl through records of births. Apparently 'Lena' isn't a very common name, and none of the babies listed in the years that would fit the age range of this girl match. Most are accounted for and the rest have brown eyes." He leaned back to take a sip of coffee before continuing.

"Now, this is where it gets interesting. There are absolutely no official records of any kids matching her description, that I could find, anywhere in South America. The first _unofficial_ sighting was 17 years ago in the municipality of Fonte Boa, Brazil." Again, he tapped the relevant mark on the map.

"This place is out in the middle of nowhere but there's this local legend, kind of a local _Jungle Book_ if you will, a story of a little wild girl who was raised by wild animals, in this case some sort of local Bigfoot or Loch Ness monster called a Rapa. Apparently this critter is a giant black cat, bigger than a horse and is unparalleled in its ferocity. What makes it all really interesting though is that the age of the kid matches Lena, or what she would have been at the time, and this kid had one eye green and one eye yellow." He noticed his audience stiffen as a smirk crossed his face.

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. I never reveal a source. Reveal one source, and you blow the lot." Not that the witch was going to ask that…this was something that none of the other hired detectives had found, this was _new_ information.

"Anyway, I have to admit I got pretty excited at finding anything, even if it was hearsay. Next sighting was in Mitu, in Colombia, about five years after the Fonte Boa sighting. Apparently she stalked some traders travelling into the town for several days through their journey…After they'd finished in town and were heading back the way they came they disappeared and were never seen or heard of again. About another eight years passed before she was seen again after that, this time in Peru in the 'Zona Revervada Pucacuro' by some park rangers. They tried to find her again but she wasn't seen again until 18 months later when she crossed the Panama Canal, heading north apparently because the next thing we knew, she was on our doorstep, taking our citizenship test."

The detective sat back and drummed his fingers on the table. Clearly he was having some form of internal debate. Eventually he decided to tell the story anyway.

"There's also a story in there from a guy who swears she's dead and that he and his gang killed her seven years ago."

The witch just raised his eyebrows. "Yeah I know. This guy swears that she was a part of their gang of bandits from when she wandered into their camp as a four year old until she was thirteen and they riddled her with bullets to…" he searched his memory for the right quote, "…'rid them of a potential problem'. Basically this gang of bloodthirsty bandits was so scared of a pre-pubescent girl that they riddled her with bullets as their way of ending their relationship with them, before she could turn on them. Then they left her in the jungle to rot…"

The detective paused, eventually the witch prompted him, "however…?"

"Yeah, 'however', less than a week later he claims that she turned up in their new camp, back from the dead and pissed as hell. Apparently she took the old 'hell hath no fury' thing to a whole new level and slaughtered the entire lot of them with her bare hands. Our man got out reasonably lightly and played dead until she'd left, well she was chasing a few of the smarter ones who'd run away at first sight of her, but whatever, he lived, staggered into the nearest village rambling about demon children…he's now in a funny farm in Cuzco. I got a contact of mine, one of the orderlies there, to show him a picture of her and he apparently went absolutely loco…I put that in my report too, but I can't verify how true it is or not."

The witch glanced at his watch. It was getting quite late in the afternoon, so he thanked the detective, wrote out a check, adding a couple of zeroes as a bonus for actually getting some information from outside the US, and left to go report to his master.

* Ty woke with the sun dipping below the horizon. He caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye once he pulled back the thick curtains on his bed. Vampires, for the most part, had internal clocks and could tell when daylight came and went. Sometimes they lost track of time, though, and got caught out in it. Resulting in becoming a pile of flames for younger vampires and a painful sunburn for elder vampires.

Ty was able to awaken earlier than the younger ones were; they usually slept until well past dusk. The remaining bit of sun he could feel through the small slit in between the curtains of the window caused him to flinch slightly. It seared his eyes, almost bringing them to tears. He closed the curtain completely, but still felt the remaining sunlight in the form of a sluggish feeling. His witch employee was hopefully back by now.

The private detective Ty hired was supposedly very good and dug deep. Of course, he should, as Ty was paying very well for any information about Lena before she came to the US. After dressing and making sure he looked presentable (his long, lovely hair wasn't easy to tame), he went downstairs to where his witch employee was sitting on the couch, patiently waiting for his master. The witch stood up, bowed to Ty, and sat back down.

"Master, the detective managed to dig up a lot more than the other ones had. This one actually-" Ty cut him off with a handwave. "Just give me the report, if you please." The witch handed Ty the report wordlessly.

His master could be a bit nasty at times, but the witch was getting paid well for it. Ty perused the information within, a little disappointed. He'd hoped for more. Still, this was a lot more than anyone but Lena herself knew. Except perhaps the Seer, who refused to speak of her vision. Ty wondered if a little quality time with her might convince her that sharing is good. He ran his tongue over his fangs, which had extended at the though of feeding from a witch.

Nah. He couldn't drink from Alania. Elspeth would likely kill him. And knowing her, she could manage it. She was the most powerful witch currently in the States. Except perhaps Melania, who had been keeping quiet lately. Ty dismissed the witch, promising him a bonus on his next paycheck, and went back to reading the file. He sat down on the vacated sofa. _Poor girl, if this older stuff really is about her. She's so young. Must have had to grow up quickly, out there in the jungle._ Ty sighed. The report even mentioned the Rapa, beasts Lena claimed were real, just undiscovered by humans and most of the Night World. He would have to take this to Elspeth. He wasn't sure she would like him digging into Lena's past like this, but she would likely welcome the information.

** Kerowyn moaned slightly as she got out of bed. Her alarm hadn't gone off, but her body was so accustomed to the strange hours by now that it didn't matter. She had forgiven Thea, and they were on talking terms again, though Kero almost regretted it at once. She was back in her own apartment, but Thea kept calling her and asking her to just stay with them until the threat to shifters was eliminated. The avian thought the threat was gone, or at least held back by Elspeth's protective spells.

Thea had insisted on her granny coming and placing even more powerful wards on Kero's doors and windows, especially the windows, given Kero's habit of leaving them open at all times, even in the heat. While she appreciated the protection, she felt it unnecessary. She hadn't seen the dark witch in awhile, nor had she seen Lena or the vampire. She'd seen the large man, Zach, around, but she'd managed to escape him with mumbled "hi"s and go about her business. He was only trying to be her friend, but Night People didn't befriend humans.

She was pretty sure there was a law against that. Either way, she knew she had to get to work. Kero glanced at the clock while dressing for work. Once dressed, she grabbed a bran muffin and headed out the door eating it. The elevator ride and the walk to her car turned out to be uneventful, thankfully. A short drive later, she was back at the casino.

Working the night shift again. Kero groaned and banged her head on the short, overhead lamp above her card table. She flinched, glad she was a shifter for the moment. If she hadn't been, that'd have left a nasty knot. She glanced around for Zach, but didn't see him yet. Either he'd worked the day shift, was off, or hadn't arrived yet. Kero heaved a sigh of relief. At least she had a bit of time to herself. One of her regulars plopped down at her table. Things were indeed looking better. She expected no trouble from this man, as he came to her table every time she worked the night shift and was nothing but polite. She dealt his cards, and started working.

+ Lena walked along the dark street, as close to happy as she ever got, 12 vampire fangs quietly clinking away in her pocket. Someone high up in the shifter community had put a bounty on vampires which were attacking other shifters, so she'd taken it upon herself to act as her own bait to collect the bounty. For some reason no one was all to sure of, if you could cut out the vamp's fangs _before_ you finished him off, they didn't decompose like the rest of the body. Weird, but who cared?

They were currently worth $500 each (or rather, $1000 per vamp) to the right people. A discreet symbol carved into the window pane of a nearby coffee bar caught her eye. Just what she'd been searching for. To those who didn't know, it was merely decoration, especially as it was a repeated motif, to those who did know, and it was one of the better-kept shifter secrets, it symbolised a place where shifters could turn in bounties on other preternaturals…specifically, vampires.

She crossed the street and stepped inside. It was relatively well-lit and filled with shifters, with a smattering of human thugs. Lena dismissed them all with a glance. No one here could kill her. Some would be able to wound her, and she them, but most couldn't kill her. Then again, she likely couldn't kill those few either so it didn't matter much. She sat on an isolated stool near the end of the bar and caught the bartender's eye. Thankfully not a human she murmured her purpose to him as he gave her a cup of bitter black coffee. He nodded and put a note in the dumbwaiter and sent it upstairs as she made a show of drinking the disgusting drink before her.

How could _anyone_ drink this crap anyway? How anyone could like it even was completely beyond Lena. Twenty minutes and a much better drink (scotch) later Lena noted the tall shifter enter the shop and get directed to her with a nod from the bartender. She figured the other shifter was only about her age.

"How many do you have?" Lena was astonished at how deep his voice was. Where the hell did it come from, his boots? Not that it mattered.

"Six pairs." Nicholas twitched in astonishment.

"There were six out tonight?"

"Six that could find me anyway." He nodded, realising Lena used herself as bait, a practically fool-proof, though risky, tactic. He stood and moved back to one of the booths in the far corner, the one that didn't have a working light so the humans couldn't see what was going on. Lena followed and dumped her handful of fangs onto the table. "They were all young and stupid. I doubt they were much over 30 or 40." Nicholas checked the number of canines and placed several bundles of cash on the table. As Lena weighed them in her hands he spoke again.

"Since Mikael of the Redfern was destroyed they haven't been sending out the older ones. I assume the younger ones are going off half-cocked on their own initiative."

Lena just shrugged, "makes it easy money for me then. Damn bloodsuckers owe me for the hole they put in my shoulder." If the other shifter was surprised by this he didn't show it as Lena turned to walk away. Her quiet voice drifted back to him, "pleasure doing business with you, as always."

Zach watched from the bench as his new baseball team practised. He'd played years ago, but had given it up since there wasn't one where he'd lived last. Only trouble was they needed one more player before they'd be let into the city amateur baseball tournament. Sighing he wondered who he could ask. He'd thought about asking Kerowyn, but his mum had told him to back off and give the poor girl a bit of room. Trouble was, he simply didn't know anyone else…except her.

He'd happened to glance up as Lena was walking by. He hadn't seen her for a few days; apparently she still wasn't allowed to work at the casino full-time yet. He got up and raced out of the field, chasing after her. It was worth a shot. He caught up to her and grabbed her hand, spinning her around…and nearly jumped back. _Damn, that's one hella pissed off face!_ but he stood his ground.

"Lena, there's something I need you for, come with me." Not giving her time to reply he began to tug her back the way they'd come, towards his teammates.

Lena nearly tore his arm out of his socket. This jerk again?! Seemed like he'd been trying to ambush her recently. Whatever happened to him stalking the damn bird instead?! The only thing that stopped her from seriously damaging him was that it was physically impossible…if she was human anyway. Plus, she was a little unnerved by the fact she hadn't managed to scare him off yet, though she hated to admit it. What was he, an idiot?

Or just plain stupid? If he was either of those he'd taken it to a whole new level, because even imbeciles knew better than to cross her. He led her back to the field she'd passed earlier, and the other humans gathered around them…or rather gathered around Zach. At least _these_ humans knew better than to get close to her. Zach did a round of introductions, but Lena didn't bother to remember any names. Was anyone going to tell her what the hell was going on? Apparently not, because they all just started talking tactics within their game and wondering who they were going to play first. Lena had enough.

"Is _someone_ here going to tell me just what the hell is going on?" Everyone except Zach took two steps back at her tone. He just gave her another one of his stupid grins.

"We needed another player." One of Lena's eyebrows rose and Zach hurried to explain, suddenly remembering the brawl Lena had broken up at the casino. "Every team needs a certain amount of active players and three reserves. One of our reserves moved away and I was just wondering who to ask when you walked by." That damned irritating grin again. Bloody idiot.

However…this did give her an opportunity of sorts. _I can't believe I'm going to agree to this idiocy, even if it will be an advantage in the long run._ "Fine." The thousand-watt grin on Zach's face broadened, though she was certain that hadn't been possible. "With one condition." The grin didn't waver. "When this is done, you will never again touch me, speak to me or even _look_ at me, do I make myself clear?" This time his grin did fade a little.

_Damn,_ Zach thought. _If I agree to her condition I'll never be able to make myself her friend, but if I don't we'll never get to play a real game!_ While Zach agonised over his decision the team captain apparently decided that was a pretty good deal, and agreed, beginning to tell Lena what she would have to do. Didn't amount to much, just sit on the bench and fill in the gap. If they had too many injuries she'd have to fill in a spot in the batting order or on the field. He watched as Lena shrugged. "You'll just have to make sure you don't have any injuries then, wont you? I have never played this game before in my life." Zach read between the lines, hearing her unspoken words. '_I have never played this or any other game before in my life.'_

* After having investigated Lena's apartment building and found that she had been painfully prepared for such a course of action, Ty decided to go to Elspeth. He had wanted to confront Lena first about the information, mostly just to see if it were true, but the UV lights had burned and weakened him so much that he really didn't want to see what other traps she had in store for vampires, so he left before finding her apartment. Elspeth may have some way of contacting Lena. If not, she could most certainly contact the bird girl, whom Lena worked with occasionally.

It would take a lot of persuasion from Elspeth, but Ty was sure Kero would agree to talk to Lena. Both of them seemed rather lonely, even if Lena didn't show it. "Sir? Where to now? You've been sitting there staring into space for about 10 minutes now." His witch driver was giving him a concerned look.

"Ah, to Miss Harman's. You know the way. Could you also call her and let her know I'm coming? In case she has any guests that don't approve of the presence of such as I. I don't want to walk in and immediately be attacked or shot at or whatever." The witch nodded, and made the phone call.

"Mistress Harman is currently in a meeting with the Seer and two other members of her Circle. She said that none of them are opposed to you visiting, as long as you don't mind their presence. Whatever that means, sir."

Ty sighed. He knew what it meant. He'd not liked his last visit with the young Seer girl. He didn't like going away from a place angry, but she had made him quite angry. The old witch would still want this information, no matter how uncomfortable the vampire would be. And perhaps Alania would be more persuasive now that she'd had time to adjust to her obviously painful vision.

"Take me to her, and make it quick. Just thinking about that snotty little Seer brat pisses me off." The driver gulped, slightly frightened at his master's anger, and puzzled. He knew Alania, and while she was certainly spooky at times, she'd never make someone mad on purpose. She was far too gentle for that.

The driver did as he was told and made his way to Elspeth's shop, breaking about 12 traffic laws at the same time. Ty was surprised by Toby's speed. He'd actually listened. As soon as the car stopped, he opened the door and got out, not waiting for the driver to open it for him. Toby got out too. "Master? May I come inside with you? Alania is a childhood friend. I...kinda wanted to say hi."

Ty almost laughed. His subservient little driver Toby had known that strange, frightening girl as a child? "Fine, but don't interfere."

Ty went in the backdoor of the shop and slowly went up the steps. Yes, Elspeth and other witches were having some sort of meeting. Likely, they didn't hear him approach but could feel his presence.

"Master Ty? Do come in. Lurking at the top of the steps like that will not endear you to anyone." The Crone's voice, as suspected. The old witch was VERY perceptive.

"Miss Harman, I have some information concerning Lena that you might be interested in." He held up his hand to stave off protests. "Yes, I did obtain this information by greasing the right palms here and there, some of it most certainly not legal, but I did not harm anyone or anything. As for the people I employed..." Ty shrugged. "I honestly have no idea HOW they got the information nor do I care. I only care that they got it."

Alania tightened her lips and gave him a stern look, but said nothing. Elspeth sighed resignedly. The other two witches in the room were still glaring at him with suspicion. They obviously disliked vampires, but not enough to disagree to his presence.

The man spoke. "Well, bloodsucker, does this have anything to do with the prophecy?" Elspeth turned and glared at the man. "Now, now, Creon. The vampire comes to us with information on an oddity, not a prophecy. Lena is a girl I had here for a short time. She healed swiftly, was able to transform into unusual beasts, and had low-ranked firemagic."

Alania moaned slightly and shook her head. "Vampire, the information, if it is about her past, please leave it be! Let the past be in the past! It really is none of your business. While it may answer your questions, it may frighten you, what you find. All of you. I warn you." The Seer pulled her knees up to her chest and shook, trying not to remember the painful vision that had burned into her consciousness.

Ty's driver, Toby, stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. While not actually being able to physically see, she reached up and grasped Toby's hand. Ty relaxed. His driver seemed to bring the Seer comfort, at least that was one point in his favor. The old witch held out her hand to the envelope Ty was holding.

"Let me see it, Master Ty. As painful or frightening as it may be, it is pertinent. I myself am interested in her magic, and her ability to transform into beasts out of mythology, even though she claims they are quite real." Ty handed it over to the Crone. She opened it and paged through it quickly. "There isn't much here. It won't take me long to read it. Give me a few moments, please." Ty sat down on a nearby loveseat, one not occupied by any witch, and waited for her to read through it.

+ It didn't take Elspeth very long to scan the documents Ty had brought with him. _I never truly realised what she meant when she said she'd never truly been a child. Perhaps now I know some fraction of her meaning_. She stared at the page which showed the map of South America and thought of the mysterious you woman who had triggered this search. An oddity, for sure, even if for only piquing the interest of an ancient being like the vampire Ty. Elspeth had never known him to show such interest in anything before, far less a shifter, outside of a meal, of course. Elspeth frowned at the approximate dates and ages Lena would have been at those times. She was about 20…something stirred in the depths of her memory and she turned to Creon.

"How long ago was it, Creon…that the witch Michael Newkirk disappeared?" Her companion frowned in thought.

"I'd say…a little over twenty years ago now. Why?" Elspeth glanced at him "Why are you asking about him after all these years?" Wordlessly Elspeth handed the file over and wondered if Creon would make the same connection she had. Over on the loveseat Ty fidgeted. Creon finished reading the file even faster than Elspeth had and looked up, a little pale.

"Elspeth, you don't think that maybe…" In the corner, Ty coughed quietly as the fourth witch in the room, silent until that moment, spoke up.

"Lady Elspeth…who or what is Michael Newkirk?" Elspeth inclined her head towards the younger witch for a moment.

"Yes, you probably are too young to remember him…" She heaved a sigh, wondering how she should tell the story. "Mike was at first thought to be nothing more than a low-ranked magician. His skills in all the most basic of witchcraft were of a beginner's level at best. When he came to America from England no one here could understand how he'd gained certification as a witch…in reality though, he was actually a prodigy. He was the strongest fire-witch anyone had ever seen, before, or since. The man could do things with fire and heat that should have been simply impossible, and is impossible, even for myself, or my Dark Coven counterpart."

Silence filled the room, until Ty's current driver spoke up. Elspeth thought his name was Toby. "Excuse me, but…'was'?"

This time it was Creon who took up the story. "He disappeared without a trace, just over twenty years ago."

Elspeth looked across the room, meeting Ty's eyes and her suspicions became clear with her next words, "disappeared without a trace…in South America."

++ Lena watched the game from her seat on the bench. This was their first night-game and third that they'd played since she'd been…"recruited". For some reason she'd been delegated to day shift at the casino, and they were finally letting her work two shifts a week. Between that and her hunting she'd managed to more than recoup the losses she'd suffered from medical bills and refitting UV lights in her building. As a bonus she actually received a small amount of pocket money for just sitting here on this bench for these idiotic humans.

A cry of pain interrupted her half-doze and she glanced up. Another player had been injured. Her side was batting, and they were dropping like flies. Something about the opposing team was irritating her. They were sly, and while she wasn't a particularly honest person she hated sly people. One by one they were injuring the opposing team, and making it look like a series of accidents. Of course, being far better able to see and hear Lena knew better. It was all deliberate.

Zach plopped down on the bench next to her and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. He'd been surprised when she'd turned up for their first game; truthfully he hadn't even recognised her. She'd covered part of her tattoo with concealing make-up and had a contact-lens that turned her abnormally yellow eye into a similar shade of green to the other one, she'd also cut her hair shorter. He'd asked her why, but she'd merely replied that she'd figured it'd be better if she didn't stand out. Whatever that meant.

"Lena…I…" he stopped, wondering how in hell he would convince her to play for them, even if she just stood there and let them strike her out…he was thoroughly shocked when she responded.

"Don't worry. I won't let scum like this win." This time he looked at her properly. Was…was she angry? Why? Was it because they were loosing or was…she answered his silent questions and again Zach wondered if she could read his mind.

"They are skilled enough to fight you on equal terms, but are so scared of loosing that they turn to tactics which are sly and underhanded." One of their runners was injured in a collision that looked disturbingly like a head-butt. "They are obsessed with winning." The tiny girl stood and put on a batter's helmet "I will teach them what it means to loose." Zach stared after her, _what the hell? Who is that girl, and what did she do to Lena?_ He was actually finding Lena's brusque and dark ways a little endearing so to hear words like that come out of her mouth…was kind of disturbing.

"Steeeeeerrrrrike!" He looked up at the umpire's call. Didn't she just say that she wasn't going to let them win? What the hell was she doing mouthing off like that?!

Lena ignored the umpire. This was the last innings, and so far the other team had scored only one run. There was one of her own teammates on second. She'd let the first pitch go by without twitching, sizing up the pitcher. Apparently he didn't fear her because he sent the exact same pitch coming at her the second time. Lena sighed, bored. This was too easy. The crowd and players watched as she gracefully, almost carelessly swung the bat down and…connected. The ball soared away across the field in a splendid arc as Lena began a leisurely jog around the diamond, following her teammate. The ball, meanwhile, went over the back fence and landed in the crowd of onlookers. Lena paused at the home plate and glanced up as she caught the scent of old blood and spied Ty watching her. Damn bloodsucker was stalking her again?

She went to step on the plate and looked over at the irate pitcher. She smirked at him and touched her foot down, securing her team's victory. She knew that ticked off look. The poor little man had thrown his best, fastest pitch and she'd made it look easy to hit. Of course, it was for her, but she was the only preternatural on either team. Unsurprisingly not many Night Worlders played sports, unless they were witches. There'd been a witch in her first match who had practically wet himself when he'd realised what she was, that had been amusing. She turned her back on Ty and went back towards her team, who were going through a round of relieved back-slapping. They were so happy they very nearly included her, but quickly stopped when she growled at them.

Only Zach was unsurprised when she announced she was going home. He did follow her to the change room though and waited outside. When she emerged she looked just like she always had, tattooed and with unnerving eye colours. Maybe this was what she'd meant by not standing out. She walked past, ignoring him, but stopped when he spoke. "Where you lying to us?"

She answered despite herself. "About what?"

"About playing baseball. We could barely hit that guy's pitches, but you made it look easy!" Lena didn't turn around to speak to him…but he was starting to get used to that.

"It was the truth." Silent words filled the pause after she spoke. _I have never played __**games**__ before. My life has no room for frivolity and never has._ Zach remembered something else as she took a step. "Hey, that long-haired guy that worked at the casino recently was watching the last part of the game. Do you know him?"

"Unfortunately. Just ignore it, he'll loose interest and leave eventually." Zach blinked, what the hell kind of answer was that?! Then he smiled. He had night-shift again this week. Maybe he'd be able to see Kero again. Perhaps convince her to be his friend…

* Ty had left the witch's shop shortly after hearing what she had to say about the information he'd gleaned. She had told him that she wanted to talk to the other elder witches privately. Ty had shrugged and left. Elspeth, and Ty himself, believed this missing fire-witch was Lena's father. He had left Toby there, at Elspeth's request, and decided to walk home. It would give him a chance to feed, as well. Toby was slightly unnerved by vampires' feeding habits, even though he worked for one, so Ty tried to do it without the young witch around. It was also a nice night outside. As he was passing a sports field, he smelled something familiar. Could it really be Lena? He smiled. Playing baseball? Seriously?

That was very out of character for her. Ty decided to watch. He slipped into the stands, unnoticed by the other spectators. The vampire frowned. Even while playing a game she didn't smile or allow human contact. Ty watched the game until the end. Lena was impressive at playing a game she'd likely never played before. She hadn't seemed like a sports fan or any type of team player. After her game was over, Ty decided to just feed on one of the spectators. For a night game, it was rather crowded. Ty's sharp eyes picked up someone else he hadn't seen in awhile.

That large man that had been near the bird in the casino. The vampire almost laughed. Could he have talked her into playing the game? Lena was leaving and the man was following her. Ty thought about following for a few minutes, then decided against it. She wouldn't talk to him anyway, and he'd rather not confront her with so many humans around. He slipped into the dispersing crowd, selecting a robust young woman for his meal. He lightly tapped her on the shoulder, used a bit of vampire mind control to coerce her out of sight with him. She was very ditzy, so it was a simple task to get her into some trees nearby.

The vampire stroked her smooth neck, mumbling soft words and exerting a bit more power. She was starting to get nervous. Ty sighed. He wasn't going to kill her. Just take a little blood. He gripped her shoulders tightly, she tensed, but didn't have the will to fight. Ty bit into her soft neck, expertly hitting the vein. Her warm, delightful blood flowed down his throat. After a few minutes, he had drank his fill and he lay her down softly on the grass.

He licked his lips, feeling much better. He almost wanted to find Lena after all. After feeding, vampires were at the height of their power and usually had energy to burn. Even after a millennium, Ty still felt that jolt of energy. He walked back to the baseball field, empty now save a few stragglers. Lena was no where in sight. He sighed and decided to just run home. It was indeed a very uncommonly nice night. Not too hot, not too chill. Not that his race really were bothered by heat and cold, but he still felt better in good weather.

Ty wasn't the only one enjoying the beautiful night.

** After finishing her shift at the casino, Kero had took to the air again, seeking the peace of the desert. One of Thea's fifteen most recent messages on her phone had been letting Kero know that Sarantia had arrived in town finally. She was staying at a local hotel. Kero hadn't spoken to her yet. Sarantia had to check in with her Circle's people first. She was Thea's cousin, but she still couldn't associate with another Circle without approval. Most of the time, Thea had said, they gave her permission and she ended up staying at Elspeth's shop.

Despite their differing types of magic, Thea and Sarantia got along quite well and were good friends. A few days, at most, and perhaps Kero would finally have the answers she sought. Elspeth couldn't help her, but the other Circle might be able to. Soft thermals propelled her hawk form back home, through the desert toward the glimmering city lights. She closed her bird-eyes, letting the wind and her senses carry her. The acrid scent of blacktop and car fumes made her open hey eyes again. Navigating back to her apartment was easy, she had done this many times.

The open window welcomed her back to her darkened bedroom. She took human form, dropped into the bed, exhausted. Not from her flight, but from the day at work. As usual, customers had got rough. Lena hadn't been around to put a stop to them, and neither had the leech. She disliked leeches and the predatory Lena, but at least they were strong enough to break up the fights between the tougher customers fairly easy.

Kero had been forced to break up the fight herself. She had no clue what the other security guards were doing, but she was planning on having a talk with their boss next time she was there. Even as an avian shifter, she was stronger than most humans. It had exhausted her, as it most likely would not have done to Ty or Lena, but she had managed.

Worse, she had gotten a few odd looks from other men in the room. They were likely wondering why a fragile looking girl like her could so easily separate large, drunken, men. She hadn't thoroughly kicked their asses like Lena had, but she'd made them stop fighting. Kero groaned and smashed her face into the pillow. She really hoped people forgot about it. If no one said anything to her, she wouldn't even say anything to the security manager. She didn't want to risk getting exposed, or alienated. She didn't have loads of friends, but some of the other casino workers were friendly toward her.


	4. Chapter 4

_**AN:** Trying to do at least three chapters a day until I get the story up to where it currently is on my forum, then I will update it with my own writing alone if my friend doesn't contribute anymore (or if no one else wants to join in). A third friend joins in shortly. Will mark her parts with a different symbol as well. I just want to make sure everyone knows that I didn't write everything on my own. Nether Dragons from Warcraft are VERY vaguely hinted at here (as in, you probably need to know WHAT they are in the first place to even find the small reference), so don't fear this crossing over with WoW as well. Sam and Dean finally appear. Ruby is human here and helping them, sort of._

_**Prophecy – Chapter 4**_

+ Working at the casino during daylight hours was beginning to bore Lena to tears. Nothing _ever_ happened! Perhaps she shouldn't wish for outright brawling, but even a shouting match to break up would relieve some boredom. Only her predatory instincts kept her from tapping out a rhythm on the balcony rail as she overlooked one of the many gaming rooms from the bar area. This one was filled with pokies and was her least favourite post. All the lights and noises from the obnoxious machines hurt her sensitive eyes and hearing.

Not a permanent issue as a shifter, but distracting and uncomfortable none the less. She decided to talk to Al and get him to move her into one of the quieter rooms, perhaps back to the card tables. Sure, she hated being around that damned avian and that human…behind her the bartender jumped as she muttered blackly under her breath about Zach. He'd even had the nerve to knock on her apartment door! How he'd found it she didn't know, or care, but Lena was pretty good at ignoring people and he'd eventually had to give up and leave.

She wasn't sure but one of her neighbours may have had something to do with that. She thought he was in a human gang of some kind. Lena yawned, thoroughly bored and wished again that something would happen. Even just a light-globe suddenly exploding…Lena grinned as she thought of the possibilities in that idea. Lights produced heat, so in theory if she caused them to heat up enough they would explode…another yawn interrupted her musings and she decided to move around. While one could see almost all of the room below from this vantage point, there was an area with couldn't be seen. Lena stretched luxuriously as she began to move _I suppose I'd better go look, even though I'd probably hear any problems from here anyway_.

Stupid Night World laws. If they didn't exist she could just sit here and use her hearing to monitor her entire area, but posing as a human (which she found rather difficult, even after all this time) made that impossible.

Besides, there was something fishy about one of the humans who was at the bar, and the possibility of him trying to start something once she was out of sight was too tempting to pass up. As she reached her second vantage point she heard it, even over the obnoxious sounds from below. Damn fool was trying to hold up the bar. Lena turned around smartly and headed back, unable to keep what could only be described as a satisfied smirk off her face.

Finally she could get some action! Even if it would only be for a minute or two. Actually, it was even less than that, much to Lena's disappointment. Maybe she should have that little conversation with Al. Work did keep her occupied, and allowed her to observe other beings, even some of her own kind. There were a number of human bounties who frequented the area, but getting information on them was difficult, if only because she was an outsider. She was just finishing up with her erstwhile burglar when her sharp ears caught the sound of shouting. A moment later her ear-piece squawked and one of the Chipmunks (last shift it had been a Daffy Duck) said something about a riot in the card room and requested all available help. A riot! Now _this_ was more up her alley, and being a daytime 'quiet' shift there was less security on than usual.

Lena whipped out a pair of handcuffs from her jacket and cuffed her burglar before instructing him to call the security hut about him and racing off to help with the riot.  
The bewildered bartender looked down at the captive and marvelled at Lena's original way of immobilising the man. He had one hand on either side of his hip and the chain of the cuffs passed between his legs. It also became apparent that the chain on the cuffs was a little too short for comfort. He looked at the rapidly receding Lena and wondered if she was simply ingenious, or just sadistic. He sighed, deciding it didn't matter and made the call.

Lena, meanwhile, actually had some fun for the day. On a full shift for security it would hardly have been a riot, with only a dozen people and most of them human, but today on what was supposed to be the quietest shift in the quietest day there was only a small handful of security. If it wasn't for Lena being around there probably would have been quite a bit of damage done. Lena darted into the fight, doing quick painful things to several of the fighters at once and knocking a couple more out. Her presence seemed to give the rest of security a morale boost.

Unknown to her she'd gained a reputation as being something of a one-woman-army among her colleagues. Not that she'd've cared what they thought anyway. Out the corner of her eye Lena spied one of the 'rioters' ducking into a nearby service hallway. She elbowed her latest victim in the face, hearing something crunch and took up the chase. The scent in the hall told her that her prey was actually another shifter, a canine if she wasn't mistaken. Lena put on a burst of speed, crash-tackling him to the floor, and somersaulting over his body and back onto her feet, just out of reach. She saw him grin, he knew her scent, he would know her for a feline and as a canine, would likely want to chase her then pound the stuffing out of her.

What he couldn't know, was that she wasn't just _any_ feline. She was a _Rapa_ and a Rapa would never back away from anything. The canine shifter smiled, hoping to intimidate the tiny dark woman who had cut off his escape. "Move, little kitten, I would hate to mar that pretty face of yours." He almost took a step back at Lena's response.

"No." Lena blinked in surprise as he disappeared, no, he'd run behind her! She glanced back just as he hit her with a resounding thump on the back of her neck, actually managing to stun her. Had she been any other being, except perhaps a vampire, he would have taken her head off. As it was, he gloated over his strike. "A pity you had to cross my path little kitten. A blow to the back of the neck at the base of your brain will keep you in a coma for the rest of your life. Dream about the foolish choice you made to face me."

He turned and began to walk away, but froze as a low, deadly voice spoke from behind him. When he turned he was stunned to see Lena actually standing back up, her microphone tossed aside so anything incriminating she might've said was not recorded.

"You're much faster than I gave you credit to be, and your precision is second-to-none." Lena rolled her shoulders and felt her neck click, easing the tension his blow had caused. "If I hadn't relaxed at the last moment to deflect your attack, I probably _would_ be a goner." For a moment the canine just stood there, stunned. No one, and no _thing_ had ever survived one of his attacks. She observed his face for a few more moments before it clicked.

"It's no wonder your bounty is as high as it is, _Dogboy_ Jackson." One of the highest bounties ever offered, she briefly wondered why he was here, then decided it didn't matter. Of all the places to stumble on a meal ticket. She glanced outside, gauging the time from the angle of the sunlight and smirked, her shift was either over, or very nearly. She tossed off her jacket and dress shirt, revealing a sleeveless white tank top underneath and took a stance, beckoning her bounty. _This should be fun!_

++ Zach figured Lena had only been upholding her end of their bargain, but…_I don't think I've ever seen that girl smile…not once. I've never seen anyone touch her either, unless she's beating the crap out of them._ There was probably some sort of psychological disorder that she had that made her behave the way she did, yeah like Autism or Aspergers or something like that. He thought back over the game they'd played against the 'Saints' (probably the most inappropriately named team _ever_).

If he was remembering right she'd been asleep for most, if not all the game until it was her turn. She never turned up for practise either, which, judging from all the local media attention they suddenly had after their win the other night, was probably a good thing. It wasn't hard to imagine Lena beating the crap out of the reporters. He walked slowly through the hallways of the casino, taking his time since he was way too early for his shift when the sounds of fighting caught his attention, as well as police sirens from outside. He picked up the pace and entered the room to see…Chaos.

Card tables had been overturned or completely smashed; most of the daytime employees were huddled in a group near the doorway he was in. After gaping at the scene for a while (which completely erased all his musings about baseball) he got the story out of the day-shift dealers. No one was entirely sure what had caused it but for some reason a riot had broken out about half an hour beforehand. Most of the uninvolved patrons had fled once the skeleton security team had turned up. Someone mentioned Lena was on security that day and wondered why she wasn't in the thick of the proceedings.

"Everyone known she's been bored out of her brain during her shifts."

"I heard she's a bounty hunter. A fight like this would be just her thing wouldn't it?"

"She was here earlier. I saw her run into the fight." Zach glanced at the young woman who had said that. Not someone he knew. "She broke that guy's nose before she ran after another guy who went tried to get away." Sure enough she was pointing at some poor sucker who was nursing a swollen and bleeding nose.

"What in the world happened in here?" Zach turned at the soft query to see Kerowyn standing behind him, just as gobsmacked as he'd been earlier. He gave her an abbreviated run-down of events as he knew them. "They said Lena went after another guy a couple of minutes ago but-" Zach cut himself off as there was a crash and the object of their discussion came flying back into the room and skidded across the floor before flipping herself back up onto her feet again, apparently none the worse for wear. At least that's what it looked like, until she spat out a mouthful of blood to one side, revealing a darkening bruise on the side of her face.

"Oh, _please_. You can do better than _this_." Zach realised Lena was speaking to the figure standing in the now-ruined doorway, and damn if it wasn't the most insultingly patronising tone he'd ever heard.

Jackson, on the other hand was scrambling. What the hell was this? The girl was a shifter; that much he knew just by looking at her.

He watched as she began to pace towards him once more and knew that the planned heist in this casino had gone down the proverbial drain before it had ever gotten off the ground, with her working here. Even his own escape was in doubt now. He'd have to defeat her in order to even consider it. They exchanged more blows in the already destroyed card room, more careful now that there were human witnesses, or at least _he_ was.

It didn't take long for him to notice that she was hitting him twice for every attempt he made to connect with her. Damn the little bitch was fast! Too fast for the humans to see what she was doing, and damn near too fast for him too. He made a strike for her throat, his hand flat, blade-like, only to have her fall backwards to avoid it, landing on her hands and striking up at his overbalanced form with both of her feet. He saved his ribs by using his crossed arms as a shield.

Jackson fell back, unable to recover before Lena pounced and had pinned him face-down on the floor, both of them out of breath and covered with sweat. He tried to get his breath back as she kept his face squashed into the carpet and he became vaguely aware of some applause somewhere. He knew all of Lena's considerable concentration was on his person at that moment, so it was unlikely he'd ever get away from this particular screw-up and turned his attention to trying to analyse the tiny being currently perched in just the right position to prevent him from getting back up.

Her scent indicated she was feline, which meant she should have been scared of him to a degree as he was a canine but…Not only was she fearless, she moved better than he did! Was she a trained martial artist like he was? No. It wasn't that, he would have recognised a specific style if she was so then what was it about this mere slip of a girl that made her so damn good? Out of the corner of one of his eyes he examined her face. She already had her breath back and there was a sparkle in her eyes and a smug smirk hovering around her lips. No, he decided, she didn't have any real training in how to fight. She was just a born fighter who loved to brawl, pure and simple.

+ - Night World prophecy, 'ending the darkness' = 'ending the secrecy'?

- Night = Dark?

- "Night World" a world of darkness existing below the world of normalcy and light?

- Oddities of the supernatural kind are being observed by the normal world more and more regularly.

- Science and forensics are advancing fast enough that Night World quirks can no longer be written off as anomalous data. Said data is slowly compiling into evidence for our existence.

- Is the prophecy a warning? Indication that the 'outing' of the supernatural world is inevitable?

- Is it inevitable? Could it be controlled enough to minimise fallout?

- Prophecy:  
"_four to stand between light and shadow"_.  
- Four who are a part of the Night World but live as much or more in the normal world?

"_four of blue fire, power in their blood"_.  
- Wordplay? The term 'power' is subjective. Is 'blue fire' meant to be taken literally or figuratively or as a mixture of both? Some with magical blue fire, some with fiery attributes and a 'blue' feature? A mixture of both? Again, "blue" literally or figuratively? Colour? Personality? Attitude?

"_Born in the year of the blind maiden's vision"_.  
- Which year? Year that the oracle had the vision? (Again, which year? When was vision…envisioned?) Or is the 'year' referred to one which occurs within the vision? One year? More than one? Consecutive years?

"_four less one and darkness triumphs". _  
- Straightforward. All four must exist for the prophecy to come to pass. Must exist at the same time? Or one after the other? Does one make way for the next? Most common belief is that all must exist at the same time and work together some how. Impossible if one of these being a human is true. Even a part-blood human poses risks and problems with exposure. Assuming any survived the Council in the first place.

"_One from lands of Kings long forgotten"_  
- Unknown. Which lands? Which Kings? Too many forgotten kingdoms and 'lands' throughout the history of both humans and the night world. No known theories on translation. Seer's vision clouded and provides no clue to identity or even species.

"_One from the hearth which still holds the spark"_  
-Thought to be a witch. Divined as such by an oracle. Self-serving divination? "Spark", a reference to magic? Species still unclear.

"_One from the day world where two eyes are watching"_  
-believed to be a half-breed. What does "two eyes" refer to? Twins? Two halves of two different races in one being? (Would support half-breed theory). Someone with two-different coloured eyes? Does "from the day world" refer to a human or a night person who has all but renounced the night world to live in the normal world?

"_One from the daylight to be one with the dark"_  
-Believed (divined?) to be a shifter. Supported by the fact that most shifters look as human in daylight hours and only change at night.

-Belief that world will end if "Wild Powers" de prematurely.  
-Why? Is prophecy a warning that the Night World will be forcibly uncovered sooner or later but with the Powers alive they do or say something which causes the Night World to reveal itself in a controlled manner? Controlling the exposé avoids media ruckus and human knee-jerk extermination?

Lena sat back and looked at her pages of notes, tapping her pencil on the table as she thought. Being on leave was a pain. Being on leave while the casino was rebuilt after a riot and with a police investigation still ongoing royally sucked. She couldn't go anywhere, couldn't find anything to do to fill in her time with anything remotely interesting and so her brain started working itself into progressively more and more complex knots.

In this case, that thrice-cursed blasted prophecy. She read back over her notes again, wondering why she was bothering. Most prophecies were self-fulfilling after all. That being the case all she had to do, all she could do was sit back and let it play out. Lena leaned back and rested her head against the wall. She was sitting on the floor in a patch of sunlight which was coming in off the balcony, essentially twiddling her thumbs, waiting, as it were, for the other shoe to drop. Not that it mattered, she had the bounty money from the nutcase canine shifter bandit she'd beaten the crap out of, and on three different fronts no less. Human authorities paid for him, the casino gave her a bonus for stopping his plans of theft and the Night World Council also paid up, on the grounds that she'd potentially stopped a leak of their existence, so she had more than enough cash to get by on, for quite some time.

Of course none of this changed the fact that she was essentially under house-arrest until the bloody human cops questioned her about the casino riot which meant she was still stuck here with nothing to do but pick apart that infernal prophecy. She felt like slowly and repeatedly bashing her head against the wall, if only for something different.

But that required her to get up, and her inner feline was enjoying the warmth of the sunshine here far too much for that. It was with that thought that someone knocked on her apartment door.  
Lena growled.

They knocked again. Deciding that she may as well see if it was at least someone she could beat up Lena answered her door. On her doorstep where three uniformed police…people. Was it still politically incorrect to say police**man**? Especially since one of them was a woman…and a witch. Lena eyed all three of them with distrust. Seeing her wary eye on them one of the men introduced them and asked if they could enter. None of the names were familiar, and unfortunately Lena had no handy excuse to keep them out so in they came.

The tiny girl who opened the door simply couldn't've been the woman security who had almost single-handedly stopped a potentially huge casino theft three days ago…could it? Officer Sarah Dragan looked around the apartment as the dark young girl let them in. It was…far from cozy, to say the least. It wasn't even furnished, especially if you didn't count the bedroll and second-hand coffee table in the living room. Beyond that there appeared to be no personal possessions in the apartment at all.

No pictures, knick-knacks, nothing. Lena gestured a sunny patch of floor as one of Sarah's colleagues asked for somewhere to sit, the look on her face clearly asking him just how stupid could he be?  
The other, a more experienced officer, simply sat and began asking her questions as Sarah discreetly probed the apartment with her magic, discovering that it was booby-trapped for vampires in many nasty and most likely violent ways. She also noticed that Lena was glaring at her from the moment she started using her magic and in that instant realised that not only did Lena know what she was, but Lena was a Night Worlder too.

Eventually they broke eye-contact as Lena was distracted by a question which received yet another reply that consisted of only one syllable. Bored, Sarah looked at the paper on the coffee table and froze, stunned, as she read notes about the prophecy. This was incredible! A leak of the highest magnitude! None of this information had been made public before and yet this…this…_immigrant_ knew intimate details of the prophecy?! Impossible! Crone Harman would have to be notified right away! Sarah tried to plot, she wasn't really a planner, but realised that it would be too risky to try and take the notes, so instead she used her magic to make copies of the notes and materialise them into the pocket of her coat. Lena glared at her again and abruptly announced that she'd cooperated enough and they had to leave. Before Sarah could leave though Lena's voice reached her ears.

"Would you use magic without permission in the home of one of your witches?"

It wouldn't be until later that Sarah would realise that Lena considered her use of magic to have been rude, no matter the circumstances. Sarah also noticed that Lena appeared to have spent a great deal of time thinking about the forgotten kings of the prophecy, if the marks from a tapping pen at that point were any indication. Crone Harman would definitely like to see this.

* Kerowyn's head throbbed after a hard night at the casino. Business had been hopping lately, with all the tourists and vacationers. How and why people enjoyed coming down here to waste money, Kero did not know. She appreciated every penny she had. Thea, on the other hand...spoiled ditz, even though she was living with Miss Harman. Kero hadn't taken a car today. She'd flown in her raven form. She made sure she was out of sigh, then close her eyes and concentrated.

"So, you're here, little shifter." Kero jerked, concentration lost, and almost fell over. Her eyes widened as her already half-owl eyes were able to focus clearly on the figure in front of her. He had just materialized or either moved very slowly. The leech! Oh dear goddess! Kero was starting to hyperventilate. Vampires! Even the so-called good ones like this one, the only one she sort of knew, scared her.

"Please, don't be frightened. I won't hurt you. Look, I mean it! You're under the Harman Crone's protection, didn't you know?" Ty put his hands on his hips. This one was such a little bird. And yet...something about her...he couldn't explain it. She was weak and fragile, that was for sure, but Ty sensed an inner core of strength. He had spent days studying shifters. Bird shifters were supposed to be very powerful, though Ty did not yet understand why. They were supposed to be able to shift into something else that could fly. Something powerful. But apparently they had lost that knowledge long ago, and were left with spineless wimps like this girl.

"Wh-what do you want, vampire? My blood isn't powerful or potent, like most shifters! It won't get you high!" Kero understood that she was babbling. She was just too afraid of vampires to not be terrified on him, whether he meant well or not.

Ty sighed. "I'm not after your blood, girl. As I said, you are protected by the Harmon Crone. She would kill me if I harmed you. Yes, she can kill me. She and Lena are probably the only ones who can. Except perhaps you, if you would realize your true potential."

Kero let her owl eyes fade. She could see well enough in the dark. This vampire...he knew something. Perhaps he knew more than Thea or her cousin. Curiosity overrode her fear. "What do you mean? My full potential? This is it. The most dangerous thing I can turn into is a bird of prey. Nothing else. Nothing at all." Her last sentence was barely above a whisper, but the vampire could still hear it, and hear the anguish in it.

Something had happened to this girl to make her resent her gift. "I may not be able to help you release your true power. Only you can do that. But I can give you information."

Ty once again sighed and rubbed his head. He wasn't used to going out of his way to be nice to someone, especially a shifter and a timid one at that!

"The avian shifters weren't always the weakest. A long time ago, there was a type of avian that looked like a lizard but could fly like a bird. It was so long ago that vampires didn't even exist then. Shifters did. Your race is ancient. Your powers are ancient. I'm not talking about dinosaurs. Yes, birds did descend from dinosaurs, so they say, but that isn't what I mean. There is something else. Its up to you to find it. I can't tell you, because I don't know myself. I was reading a book about the ancient shifter world while in my vast library one night, and came across a description of each type of shifter. Avian shifters, feline shifters, and canine shifters were among the most powerful. I sat and wondered why birds would be considered so dangerous. Then I remembered what they came from. Look into it, little bird. What can fly like a bird, has hollow bones like a bird, but is powerful enough and big enough to eat people? Farewell. I'm sure we'll meet again."

Ty bowed to the shifter and went to the waiting limo nearby. Dawn was nearing, and he didn't want to get caught out in it. He had given the girl information. It was up to her to do the rest.

+ It was the next day that Lena was finally able to go back to work. Lena and Zach that is. Zach had discovered, most painfully, that Lena was not to be crossed after several days of inactivity, and did his best to avoid her for now. Instead he decided to see if he could find Kero, and talk to her instead. She may not say anything, but she wouldn't hit him either. In the coffee room a few other colleagues pointed out his rapidly-turning-purple eye to which he responded with a cheerful "Lena, who else?"

This in turn resulted in his co-workers nodding sagely and congratulating him on not being torn limb-from-limb. No one doubted Lena was capable of actually killing, so evidence of her restraint was considered a relief. Continuing his way through the room, studiously avoiding the side the security team had claimed, Zach finally found Kero, only to discover her studying a piece of paper with what appeared to be a riddle written on it. He glanced over her shoulder to look at it.

'_What can fly like a bird, has hollow bones like a bird, but is powerful enough and big enough to eat people?'_

Strangely Kero was so absorbed in her riddle that she appeared to not have noticed his approach, which was seriously odd. If it was one thing he'd noticed Kero and Lena had in common it was that it was practically impossible to sneak up on either of them. Not that anyone wanted to experiment by sneaking up on Lena of course. He decided to make his presence known.

"I didn't know you liked riddles Kero." The little jump and squeak she made would have been funny on a less skittish person. Zach pretended to not notice and scratched his head in thought. "It's a tough one too. Hey, if you get stuck you should ask Lena!" At this suggestion Kero turned several shades paler, then paler again as it was noticed that Lena had apparently heard her name, from across the loud room, and was now glaring in their direction. Zach, being oblivious, noticed neither of these things.

"She's really good at riddles y'know? At practice the other week the pitcher's kid was doing homework, got really stuck, Lena helped him solve the riddles…come to think of it that was really creepy. Lena helping someone voluntarily…" Zach trailed off and shuddered. As he wandered off he could be heard muttering "anyone'd think she liked kids or something…creepy."

Boring. That was the adjective that came to mind for this shift, her first back after the near-riot several days…or was it a couple of weeks ago? Bah, it didn't matter. This damned shift was _boring_. It was enough to make Lena want to pick a fight just for the hell of it, plus those stupid human men in black suits were staring at her, following her every move. It was seriously fraying what little patience she did have. Odds where if she saw them after-hours they were going to hurt.

A lot.

And what was that bloody fool and the avain talking about before the start of her shift that included needing mentioning her anyway? She thought it was clear that the avian wanted nothing to do with her, and she was certain the human idiot knew better than to accost her again. For someone so large to actually be able to hit his eye like that was quite a jump. The hardest part was keeping it toned down enough to not be too suspicious.

As she walked past the glass enclosed high-roller's suite she focused not on the inside of the room, but on the reflections in the glass. Those bloody suits were still following her. What the hell did they want anyway? Lena checked the clock, should be sunset at this point. She moved on, heading back out to the card room and looked out over the room from an upper storey balcony. Odd, there were more suits down there.

Lena checked their positions as a frown briefly flickered across her features. Apparently she wasn't the only one being shadowed. There were at least a dozen or so trying to discreetly watch both the avian and, for some reason, that mountainous human boy. Lena couldn't help the smirk that developed at the sight of his now-blackened eye. There was no way he'd be able to see out of that for at least a day, even if he did find something to reduce the swelling.

Deep within the neon-lit streets of early-morning Las Vegas a quiet meeting was taking place. At first glance there was nothing really out of the ordinary. In any other city an-early morning meeting like this would send alarm bells ringing and calls to the police, but Vegas never slept so business was done at all hours of the day and night. This meeting was special however. None of the participants were human. Most were young, middle-aged at the most, and all deferred to an ancient man with white eyes and hair. At this moment though, the meeting was somewhat disorganised, and each new phrase was spoken by a different being.

"It has begun."

"The humans are starting to get suspicious of our people in their communities."

"Who is asking the questions?"

"Military mostly."

"Some have gotten offers from human terrorist organisations."

"Special Forces are most interested. Intelligence agencies, the higher-profile protection agencies. Government."

"They are starting to suspect…but why? Why now?"

"Human technology for the most part. I have a contact with Inland Revenue, had a rather tricky time of it covering up a few vampires not long ago."

"Vampires?"

"Yes. Stupid leeches who got caught in a photograph hundreds of years ago then gets caught again in more recent years. Normally their accounts get no notice at all, until something like that happens to get attention focused on them. Mostly they can pass it off as family resemblance, but some of them have rather distinguishing marks that simply cannot be swept under the rug."

"Witches too."

"Witches? Don't tell me we're going to have those pitchfork-and-bonfire mobs starting up again."

"Maybe. They're bloody careless. Think they're God's gift to the earth and can do no wrong. Before their magic was interpreted as acts of god or anomalous data, these days though, with human technology what it is, it's becoming obvious that there's 'something else' out there going on."

"What of our people?"

For a few minutes silence reigned, then a sigh, "until recently we were under the radar. Then the vampire attacks started. The humans got to some of the corpses before our cleanup. DNA sequencing has shown the humans that there's something different about a section of the community. They've been watching the 'miraculous survivors' of various scrapes much closer in recent days. It was only in the last two or three days that pointed questions were starting to be asked."

"Why _are_ we being targeted by bloodsuckers these days anyway? I get the feeling that everyone knows except us!"

Finally the ancient man spoke. "That, my friends, is because everyone did." He sighed heavily as a stunned silence filled the room. "It is because of the Millennium Prophecy." Before the various clan heads could start their shouting he recited the prophecy as it had been told to him, and admitted he may not have gotten the wording correct due to hearing it fourth hand or so. "The witches and vampires have known of this prophecy for years and never saw fit to tell us, despite the fact that they _know_ that is has to do with us. At least one of the mentioned is to be one of our kind.  
However that is not the current problem. What are we to do about the humans?"

"…what are our options Greatfather? As I see it there are two; keep the secret and try to cover up what has been found, which will be near to impossible. Or, we withdraw from the Night World treaty, and come into the open, reveal ourselves to the humans." All factions in the room began shouting as some thought there would be a third way while most were all for leaving the witches and vampires to their own devices. No one believed that they could cover up what had begun to snowball.

Finally someone managed to shout loud enough to be heard over the din.  
"At this point I think we can agree that a cover-up is impossible. The question then becomes, how much do we tell, and when?"

"This is clearly a breech of the treaty, I say we tell them to stick it in their collective craw and reveal ourselves to the world. If we do it right we can avoid a lot of bad press. Make it seem as though we all go into more militaristic occupations, let them assume that we're all 'grunts with guns'. Showing us as fighting for our respective countries will go a long way to endearing us to the humans."

"I agree. I also say it should be done soon. If we leave this too long we leave ourselves open to blackmail, from both the humans and the Night World."

"Aye, and what do we do about the Night World?"

"Let 'em stew in the juices of their own making I say. It's simple enough to simply not say anything about them."

Once again the ancient spoke. "We are in agreement then? Very well. Go back to your clans and filter our discussion through the ranks. Gather ideas and comments; see what else our people have to say. We will meet again in a few days to put together our 'coming out' plan. I want to also make it clear though, that if people do not wish to reveal themselves right away they do not have to. We are revealing our existence, not an individual's identity."

Sarah ran to Elspeth's as fast as she could from the bus stop, barely giving the magic in the wards to recognise her before she clattered up the stairs, barely even noticing she was interrupting a meeting between some of the higher-ups. Of course, the late-afternoon sunlight streaming in through the windows directly into her eyes may have had something to do with that.

"Crone Harman! There's been a breach in security! On duty today we were running a routine follow-up investigation on an attempted theft from one of the casinos when I noticed these notes on the table!" Once Sarah handed the copied notes over to Elspeth she bent over, resting her hands on her knees trying to get her breath back.

Elspeth glanced over the notes, taking in all the little marks where the author had apparently been thinking or places where words or sentences had been underlined. She waited a moment while Sarah got her breath back before asking

"Can you describe the author to me?" She passed the notes on to her colleagues to peruse as Sarah began to describe, of all people, _Lena_. "Lena wrote these? I wonder why…" Elspeth mused. "She didn't seem to put much stock into the prophecy when I told her…" This particular revelation didn't go down well.

"What do you mean you told her? You leaked the contents of the prophecy to a _shapeshifter_?" There was a murmur of agreement at the disgust in Creon's tone.

Elspeth's patience with the man was getting close to being used up. "Of course I told her." She replied hotly. "I'll tell any shifter I come across, as we should have done from the beginning instead of keeping them in the dark all the time!"

Creon opened his big mouth again only to have Elspeth continue to talk over him "the prophecy is as pertinent to the shifters as it is to witches." She sighed and closed her eyes briefly "there have been rumours recently…talk of the shifters isolating themselves from us." Splutters of indignant outrage filled the room.

"So? The miserable beasts have threatened to isolate themselves from us before. This will work out the same as all the other times. They'll rattle their sabres a bit then back down and come back with their tails between their legs."

Elspeth shook her head. "No Creon, I'm afraid this time is different. In the past our races relied on each other to exist in secret. Now in this modern world with all the advancements that humans have made in their technology we are more of a liability to them than a help. Withholding the prophecy may be the final straw for them, once word gets out in their communities. They'll consider it a breach of treaty, especially since the vampires knew of it and have been hunting them relentlessly." Elspeth looked at the notes Lena had made.

The girl must have been thoroughly bored to have analysed something she was scornful of. Into the shocked silence Elspeth dropped another bombshell, referring to those very notes "I'd heard rumours that human military authorities have been approaching members of shifter communities. Luckily for us they are natural chameleons, I believe they are better at blending into human society than we are."

*Ty stood in the corner of Elspeth's apartment, arms crossed, wondering why she had called him, especially during the day. He was tired and weak, and did not feel like being here at all. Normally, he would be asleep at this time. As it was, he'd had to take caution to avoid the sun's burning rays as much as possible. While he wouldn't burst into flame, it would hurt like hell and that was not something he cared to experience again. The UV traps in Lena's apartment had been painful enough.

The real sun would have been even worse. The curtains were closed and the room made as sun-proof as possible, for which the vampire silently thanked Elspeth. She wasn't prone to showing courtesy to his kind, so this must have been dire. There were others there. Other witches, even some from Circle Midnight, the Dark Coven. He recognized Sarantia, Thea's cousin, with her long black hair and air of haughty disdain. She also crackled with magic, unlike her cousin. Sarantia was indeed a powerful witch for her young age.

There was also Melania, Elspeth's Dark Coven leader counterpart. Ty could tell she disliked being here as much as he did. Her sons, a tall blonde witch and a smaller dark haired witch stood near her, the blonde one looked bored and irritated, while the younger one looked a bit frightened. That one was not cut out for Circle Midnight, he could tell. He was likely only there per his mother's wishes. Unlike Elspeth, the leader of the Dark Coven was no crone. She was _the_ Crone, but she was not elderly, or did not appear as such.

Her lips were tightly pressed together and she had an irritated look about her. Melania caught Ty staring at her and shot him a nasty grin. The curtains nearby fluttered open, bathing the room in brilliant sunlight. Ty let out a gasp of pain. Melania laughed. Elspeth banged her walking stick on the ground and glared at both Melania and Ty. She waved a hand and the room was darkened again.

"For all that is holy in the Night World, let us put aside our differences for now. Mistress Melania, there was no call for harming someone I called to this meeting. Master Vampire, you need not provoke a witch, no matter how much their views differ from ours." Elspeth shot a glare once again at both the Dark witch and the vampire.

"Lady Elspeth, I am not part of the Council, nor am I privy to any of their doings. I do not wish to be either. I prefer my solitude, as you well know. Lately, however, things that have been happening have drawn my interest, as nothing has in hundreds of years. I'm sure that is why you called me here?" Ty said, in a clipped voice, simply wanting to get this meeting over with and get home to sleep.

Elspeth gave him a long, soul-searing look. "Yes, I know that. As you and I both know, your solitude and our secrecy may shortly becoming to an end. I assume you've been watching TV and reading the newspaper? Oh, yes, your kind is a bit technophobic." Ty stopped her and held up a hand.

"Crone, I have been paying attention to the news lately. Or did you not hear what I said previously?" his discomfort was making him unpleasant, and he knew this, but he could not be pleasant when it felt like his insides were burning,"There have been things in the news, some of my kind being careless. Human technology is making it harder for our race to hide, and yours as well. There are technologies that can detect changes in air waves, and your magic certainly does plenty of that. My kind are immortal, which really raises questions when one of us is caught on camera in the 50s and again in this year and look the same. Sure, family resemblance can be passed off sometimes, but tell me, Crone, how many people look exactly like their ancestors? Very few. The Night World has begun to draw the attention of the human world. That is why you called me here."

"Indeed, vampire. Both of our kinds are responsible for this. We have gotten careless. So careless that we forget the Night World treaty. The shifters know nothing of the prophecy. I understand that you have no interest in talking to or being part of the Council, but you are likely the eldest of your kind. I dislike vampires greatly, but I trust you more than I trust those of the Council. What is your opinion, Tylendil? Shall we call the shifters to a meeting?" Elspeth once again seemed to be staring into his soul with those sapphire eyes.

A snort from the other side of the room interrupted Ty's reply. It was the Dark witch, Melania.

"There is no need to tell them. They are animals, pure and simple. If the human military catches them, what do I care? The animals are disgusting and depraved, almost as bad as leeches," she shot a sneer at Ty before continuing, "They should be locked up. They should be exterminated. Forget the Night World treaty. We should never have made a treaty with beasts. When you called me here, you said the shifters were talking of isolating themselves from the rest of the Night World. I don't care. Let them. Animals should not be able to speak or make treaties. Nor should dead people. I am insulted by the presence of the vampire. He has no stock in the prophecy. His kind are not even considered in the prophecy. Get rid of it. We witches are the true rulers of the Night World. Not leeches or animals."

Ty felt a blast of heat and power. Elspeth's sapphire eyes almost shone. "Mistress Melania, you forget where you are. This is my home. My place of power. If you wish to leave, then leave. But I believe this concerns us all. All Night people. Not just witches. Now, Master Tylendil, please have your say."

Melania tried to speak but Elspeth had apparently cast a silence. The silence spell would not hold for long, but it would hold long enough for the vampire to express his opinions.

"Despite Mistress Melania's hatred for all non-witches, I believe we should include the shifters, as I am sure you believe. Lena, she is a shifter and knows of the prophecy, as does the young bird girl. There is no reason to not call the elders of the shifter council or whatever their inner circle is called. If they isolate themselves from the rest of the Night World, it may spell disaster for us. If they side with the human military and expose witches and vampires, then we are done for. My kind will be hunted down and exterminated."

Melania tried to say something rude, but the silence spell still held, "And your kind would be exploited. What human wouldn't want a magic solution to all their problems? Also, if my kind is NOT exterminated by humans, then they will lock us up in labs and use our blood in experiments. They will try to find ways to make themselves immortal. In essence, if we are discovered, or purposely exposed, the result could be disastrous. Now, if we were to...I know no other way to phrase this...come out of the supernatural closet on our own, things may be different. We may be able to do some damage control. I dislike contact with the Council, but if they hear this information, then perhaps they will stop trying to kill shifters and we can all find a way to tell the world we exist without them trying to kill or exploit us."

Elspeth nodded. "Well said, Master Ty. I am in perfect agreement with what you say, and I am glad you see it as well. I thought I was the only one. You needn't trouble yourself over the Council. I may not be one of your kind, but I am leader of the Witches, and the Council will listen to me."

The silence spell had finally worn off Melania and she had something to say to that. "What makes you leader of the Witches? You are an old woman, a Crone in every sense of the word, but that makes you no more our leader than I. I am capable of spells you've never dreamed of. Spells that would make you cringe for their power." Melania's dark eyes shone with malice.

Elspeth held up a hand, waiting to speak, "Mistress Melania, I do not doubt what you say. You are capable of spells I've never used. Dreamed of, yes, but never used. That is the difference between us. Your spells require blood and sacrifice. Powerful they may be, but they are not worth the price. Anyway, you may leave, Ty. I've no more need of you. The rest of this can be discussed amongst us witches."

"Mistress Elspeth? Where is the bird shifter? I have a gift for her. Its not much, but it may help her find what she's been looking for." Elspeth gave him an odd look. Vampires normally did not go out of their way to help shifters.

"She worked the night shift last night. She is sleeping upstairs. Do be careful not to startle her." Ty nodded and headed up the stairs to Kerowyn's bedroom. It was darker and cooler up here. He swayed slightly, tiredness overwhelming him for a moment. He let out a breath and knocked lightly on the avian's door. She would hear it, even if she were in the depths of sleep. The vampire heard the patter of slippered feet across carpet. Kero peered out the door, let out a small shriek and backed away.

Ty rubbed his forehead. How many times did he have to tell her he meant her no harm? "Little shifter, I come with a gift for you. Crone Elspeth is downstairs and she allowed me up. She would not have allowed me up if I meant you any harm."

Kero slowly approached the door, but did not open it more than a slight crack. "What do you want, vampire? What gift could you give me? I have been pondering the riddle you gave and came up with no answer. I have no reason to believe you mean to help me. Go away." Kero sounded near tears and started to shut the door.

Ty stopped it with a hand. "Just take this book. I will leave you then. Consider it more help from me. I still do not know if it is possible, but this book was written by a witch who does not know she is a witch. A lost witch. She had visions, I believe, and that is why I think this book may be of some help." Kero took the offered book gingerly, as if it may bite, and closed the door. Ty did not try to stop her. He had gave her what he meant to.

He headed to the waiting limo outside the building, Toby, his faithful driver patiently waiting for him. The sun's bite from the door to the car stung, but he had made sure to wear a hat and dark sunglasses so as to avoid most of the pain. "Let us go home, Toby. I am in dire need of sleep." Toby glanced back at his tired master. The vampire was laying on the seats, eyes closed. _Poor man_, thought Toby, _I would hate to be a vampire. The perks are not worth the downfalls. _

Back in her room, Kero looked at the book the leech had given her. It was written by someone called Amy Lynn Laurence. She had wrote a series of books, and this was apparently a reference guide to the fiction series she wrote. She turned to the table of contents. Her eyes widened slightly. Vampires, witches, shifters...it seemed as it her books were about Night People. But then, the vampire had said she was a lost witch. She could have been writing about the Night World without knowing it was real. Kero turned to the chapter on shifters. The usual descriptions of different types of shifters...until she came to the last entry.

She knew that the world had been ruled by the shifters in its early days. This was how. These beings ruled the shifters and the other races, until the witches became powerful enough to lock away their ability to become what they were meant to be. Hollow bones, large, strong, carnivores, and they even breathed fire. Dragons. If Lena could become a supposedly mythical Rapa, then why not? Dragons were real.

And they were part of her bloodline. They were what made the avian shifters so powerful. Kero looked at the illustration. The lizard-like being was strangely beautiful. Even though the picture wasn't colored, Kero could swear she saw gold scales, violet eyes, and...magic. Dragons could wield magic in addition to being shifters. Her hands were shaking. This was what she had been looking for. There was no guarantee it was real, though. She needn't get her hopes up for no reason. Kero's breathing was fast and hard. She lay the book on her nightstand and tried to go back to sleep.

In another room, far away and much different than the homes and apartments of Las Vegas, Master Sergeant Ruby Declan of the Initiative for the study of the Supernatural watched a video from the security cameras in a Las Vegas casino. A young, seemingly harmless young girl beat the living shit out of men twice her size and weight. No matter how much training she had in the martial arts, that was physically impossible.

Ruby was a feminist and firmly believed women to be superior to men, but even she knew that no woman of that size and weight could have handed the asses to men like that. Her agents, Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers, had brought the tape to her. They were firm believers that the world was not as it seemed and that there were things out there that were not human. She, too, believed in the supernatural, and so did some of her superiors since they had given her this post and had taken every word spoken by her and by the brothers completely seriously.

Something was going on, and soon it was going to come to a head. It was the military's job to keep such knowledge from being made public. If they knew of the existence of non-humans, the world could be flung into chaos if it was not done right. She continued watching the video, making note of a pale man in the corner, silently observing the fight. His violent red hair and the rest of his appearance rung bells in her head. She gestured to Sam and Dean, still in the room. Dean was not paying attention, eating a burger and reading some inappropriate magazine, but Sam immediately came over to her.

"Who is this man, Sam? I swear I have seen him before." Ruby pointed to the red-head in the video, making sure to have paused it at just the right angle to give Sam the best view possible. Sam scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Well, Sergeant, I've seen him on the cover of one of those Fortune magazines before. I don't know his name, but if he was on the cover of that magazine, then he's definitely a wealthy dude. Uh, Sergeant, what would a guy like that be doing in a shady casino anyway?"

Ruby clapped her hands at the revelation. She knew who this was now. "This man, Sam, is Tylendil. I don't know his last name, but he is probably one of the wealthiest men in the world, if not the wealthiest. His name and money go back hundreds of years. Old money, as they say. Perhaps its not just his name that goes back hundreds of years..."

Sam looked a bit stunned. Normally, Ruby didn't like to admit her belief in the supernatural as easily as he and Dean did. From what she was saying though, it almost seemed as if... "Ruby, are you saying this guy is some kind of immortal something? This girl too. I know you've watched this video of her kicking ass at least 3 times. She's hot, but I know you're not watching it for that. I mean, Dean would, but you're married and definitely not into that kind of stuff."

Ruby and Dean both glared at Sam. "Sam, regardless of whether or not either of them have anything to do with non-humans in this world, I would still like it checked out. How would my boys feel about a free trip to Las Vegas?"

Dean jumped up, suddenly not giving a damn about his burger or the magazine. "Vegas? Sign me up, baby. Anytime, anywhere. I've always wanted to go there."

Ruby sighed. She knew he was going to react like that. "This will be a business trip, Dean. You and Sam are to investigate all the unusual things happening in this city and report and record what you can and send them back to me. This is no pleasure trip. If I hear any hint of either of you not doing your job, you'll be demoted back to boot camp in a heart beat. Now go. Your plane leaves tomorrow. You both have credit cards issued by the US military. You will have no need to pack anything or make hotel reservations. Simply show them your IDs if you are given any trouble. I expect to hear from you boys soon."

Ruby waved a hand, dismissing her employees. One way or another, the US military fully intended to find out what was truly going on, and had been going on, with this world. Ruby was going to make sure of that. The Initiative already knew of the existence of the non-humans, but had no way of proving it, nor had they ever been able to contact any of them or get any of them under a microscope. If Ruby had her way, the girl or the man would be with the Initiative before long and she would have her proof.

**QUICK RUNDOWN ON EVENTS:**

-Kero & Lena intro

-Lena arrives in Vegas and sets up camp

-Vampire attacks introduced

-Lena attacked by (and subsequently beats up) a vampire. Ends up in hospital.

-Thea 'kidnaps' (bird-naps?) Kero to the Harman abode.

-Lena healed by Harman, moved from hospital.

-Ty introduced

-Prophecy introduced/discussed

-Ty attempts to spy. Unsuccessfully.

-Seer introduced and freaks out Ty before divining Lena's past and then goes into shock.

-Zach (the eternally cheerful moron) is introduced and tries to make friends with everything that moves.

-Lena beats people up.

-Ty scares the crap out of Kero.

-Lena's past. Some of it anyway.

-Shifters talk to Harman.

-Lena booby-traps her building against vampires.

-Ty pays people to investigate Lena.

-Lena beats more people up.

-Zach cons Lena into playing baseball.

-Ty discovers some of Lena's booby-traps

-Lena beats people up during an attempted robbery/riot. (I think there's a pattern starting to emerge here...)

-Lena ponders the prophecy out of sheer boredom.

-Ty gives overly cryptic messages to Kero. (After scaring her again.)

-Humans start getting suspicious and begin following Lena, Kero and Zach around.

-Shifter council meets and talk of ending the Night World treaty.

-Lena's prophecy notes get back to the witches.

-Covens hear about the Shifters' impending treaty split

- US Military gets involved, Sam and Dean head to Vegas to investigate the supernatural (hah?)

**RUNDOWN WAS FOR ANYONE LOST! **

**May post character sheets for Ty/Kero/Lena and the third player's characters who will be introduced in the next chapter. No character sheet for Chris/Wyatt/Sam/Dean, because most people pretty much know who they are. If not, just consider them random witches/military 'hunters'.**


	5. Chapter 5

_**AN: **Third party's characters introduced. Will be marked with a sign. I don't want to take credit for writing I didn't do, once again. And once again, I DO have permission to post all this. My friends wanted to see it in fanfic form, but didn't want to take the time to do it on their own. I didn't mind at all. This RP has been going on over one year for us, so we pretty much understand our characters and each other's very well. Some minor WoW references again._

_**Prophecy – Chapter 5**_

Blade flicked her tail in slight annoyance; the voices were beginning to disturb her sleep. She glanced around to see Vicious already sitting beside her, listening intently to the voices. He was concentrating hard.

She over acted a yawn and playful roll on to her back, pushing her paws against him with claws extended. Vicious ignored her. Unimpressed that she was not the centre of attention she pulled herself up and head butted his forelegs, waving her fluffy tail in his face.

"Cut it out...Listen this is important" Vicious whispered to her.

Blade turned her attention to the source of Vicious's curiosity. A meeting of important and powerful shapeshifters was taking place just outside of visual range, this meeting included Grandfather so it must have been big.

The meeting concluded and the members dispended.

"Oh wow...this is huge...we've got to tell someone!" Vicious exclaimed. Blade was un-impressed, this was no fun.

"Like who?" she casually asked. She was right; they did really have any contact with the Night world. Living most of their lives in/as preferred animals, leeching creature comforts of old people. Vicious seemed stuck for thoughts.

Blade announced she was hungry (yet again) and lead them off to find some morsels of food.

They walked along one of the more respectable strips of restaurants looking for a meal. The pickings were good tonight, they had been able to charm good bits of the dinners sitting out side.  
Vicious was done for the night and was keen to find some place warm to sleep; he also wanted the chance to think more about the conversation he'd overheard.

He whimpered to Blade who had jumped up onto an abandoned table and was tucking into a particularly nice dessert left by a patron. She flicked her tail in response, she'd finish this first.  
After she'd finish the good bits she turned to Vicious "You want some..." Her voice trailed off. "Vicious!" she hissed to get his attention; he had been deep in thought. "Vicious" She hissed again.

Vicious finally turned to her. "What?" He finally responded. Too late.

Vicious was hoisted into the air, one handed, by a pale looking human. Supporting a toothy grin it wasn't a mystery as to who and what the intruder wanted.

Blade without hesitation garbed the remaining dessert and lobed it hard and true onto the Vamps face. Stunned and blinded Vicious was dropped, and the two started their retreat.

Vicious changed from the English sheepdog to a Fox terrier, Blade into a Serval. They putt on as much speed as possible to get away. Running along a street Blade veered to the left.

Vicious halted "Why that way?!" he demanded. These two had great sense of power that another being was capable off. The stronger the power, the greater the intuition was. There was a massive power radiation from the direction Blade was heading into.

"Trust me!" she called. Vicious hesitated before taking off after her; they couldn't tell if this power was good or bad.

They skidded/crashed to a halt when they reached the individual. Panting hard they stared wide eyed at the once alone individual they had just about ran into. They did not look pleased about the interruption. Blade glanced at the pursuing Vamp, he'd spotted the greater threat. The individual also spotted the new threat.

For now...Blade and Vicious were forgotten about. Blade began to relax, the individual and Vamp began to eye each other.

* Ty had just finished his nightly feeding, when he was walking back to his ride. Toby, being mortal, though a witch and used to late nights, still needed sleep like a human needed sleep. Ty's driver tonight was a young, subservient vampire in his employ that also wanted nothing to do with the Council. Likely he felt safer with Ty. Ty hated saying so, or even thinking this, but it was likely due to his recent contact and connections with Crone Harman.

He just wanted to be left alone and continue living as he had been. However, if what they had discussed at the meeting was true, that wasn't likely to be for long. The human military at least knew that something wasn't normal about the world they were living in. Ty had spotted a 1967 Chevy Impala following him that reeked of old food and unwashed clothing, but also lots and lots of weaponry. The iron and steel scent, as well as the gunpowder, was unmistakable. They also failed horribly at hiding where they were from. The license plate was US military issued. If it weren't for that, he might have mistaken the annoying followers as vampire hunters or crazy people who believed in that stuff so thoroughly that they took every precaution.

With some crafty moves by his driver, he had finally lost them and was able to find another homeless drunk to feed on. He disliked the tinge of alcohol in the man's blood, but it didn't affect him nor did it affect the quality of the blood. Even if the man had full blown aids and several different types of STDS, it wouldn't have mattered. Vampires couldn't catch human diseases. The red-haired vampire continued his walk back to the vehicle when he caught the scent of another vampire and two shifters. He licked his lips and let the scent in fully.

Canine and feline, and the vampire was likely very young if he was taking on two shifters at once...unless the shifters were just very bad fighters. Even then, Kero, the bird girl, could hold her own in most fights. Against a young vamp, Kero could still have likely put up a good fight. If she discovers everything in that book and how to do it, she would be more than capable of putting up a fight. Putting _out_ a fight, yes. With fire. He laughed. Ty let out a sigh when he was nearly bumped into by the two terrified smelling shifters.

The vampire glared at them for a moment. Neither were in a fighting form. He sighed. Very young, or very non-violent. A Serval and a Terrier? Really? Ty almost smacked his forehead with annoyance. Feline and canine shifters, and THAT was what they turned into? They could have turned into a wolf or a cheetah and easily outran this fledgling. All vampires were born and grew up as one, but that didn't mean that all were capable of actually fighting.

Some were raised as he had been when he was young. Spoiled, wealthy, kept away from all violence. Then when they had to face the real world and get meals on their own instead of mummy and daddy bringing some sedated human to them, they weren't prepared and just attacked anyone they could, especially since most vampire parents' would teach their children how to feed/fight by throwing them out for several years. A lot of times this proved fatal.

In Ty's case, his parents were more caring. They taught him that its best to feed off people who are out of it, suicidal, or, in a pinch, won't be missed/bring down suspicion. In some cases, his parents had told him that it was alright to use mind control to get a victim if no other could be found. Ty had changed these rules to suit himself over the thousand and some odd years since, but for the most part abided by them. He turned his attention back to the young vampire that had been chasing these shifters, and got a bit of a shock. Not so younger after all, and he recognized him.

"Nusabi, is that you? Why are you chasing a bit of fluff like these?" Ty gestured at the frightened shifters nearly pressed against his legs.

The other vampire blinked, a bit puzzled. "Tylendil? The old guy that turned down a council seat? That really you? You saved my ass, hundred years or so back. Kept me away from some witch hunters when I wasn't strong enough to fight 'em all. I wanted some shifter blood. These two are pretty weak. Two shifters running from me? I heard of ONE shifter slaughtering several of us in less than 30 seconds, so I figured these guys would be easy pickings. Look, I'll share with you. I mean, I owe you one, right? You can have the cat and I'll take the dog. The cat threw some human food in my face, so I don't want to touch that thing again." Nusabi stepped forward and attempted to take the dog shifter.

Ty shook his head. "I don't kill for kicks. Never have, never will. I kill only when its necessary. These shifters didn't threaten me or you. Just go away, or I'm afraid I'm going to have to teach you a lesson in manners."

The other vampire was befuddled. "You serious, man? This is some hot shifter blood. In your younger days, you may not have killed for kicks, but you loved a pint or two of shifter blood and the high it gave you. You tellin' me you that you gonna kill me for some little fluffy things? 'Sides, the council put out a hit on the shifters. We're supposed to kill 'em when we find 'em. I figured, I'd kill two birds with one stone, know what I'm saying? Get a high, and get on good with the council for taking out two shifters."

"One hundred years ago wasn't my 'younger days', sorry to say. Yes, I enjoyed the kick of shifter blood and if I could ever get ahold of one of them, I would no doubt rather drink from them than a human. That still holds today. Shifters today are much stronger than they were even so short as a hundred years ago. Its almost as if something old is waking up, and that something old is wanting shifter rule back. Leave them to me, or I will kill you. We may have been acquaintances in the past, but I am pragmatic. I do not work for the council or do its bidding in any way. I've always done my own thing, on my own. I will not kill these shifters nor drink from them. Besides, there's something a bit off about them."

Ty bent down to the frightened shifters. "What is about you that I find disconcerting? Perhaps its time for another unpleasant visit to the Crone." Ty grimaced. He hated intruding upon that frightening old lady, but there was indeed something odd about these shifters.

Nusabi snarled. "Old man, saved my life in the past or not, I'm gonna rip you to shreds. You're defying council orders and denying me a meal of shifter blood. I had thought you different. Perhaps the council is right. Perhaps you are 'the Crone's pet vampire'." Nusabi sneered.

"I'm done with you, Nusabi. I don't have time for this. I want to drop these two off at the Crone's before dawn." With that, Ty rushed forward, shoving his silver dagger into the other vamp's throat.

"I won't kill you today. You can run off and tell the council I'm done playing games. If they want to talk to me, fine, but tell them to stop with the errand boys. Thats right, I killed two of them outside the gates of my manor just tonight. I know they're trying to get me to talk to them. Tell the leader, tell Maeve, to come in person. I've always enjoyed her company." He yanked out the silver knife.

Nusabi would heal from the wound slowly and painfully, thanks to the silver. It wasn't deadly to vampires, like it was to shifters, but it still made them heal slower. He used the butt of the blade to knock the other vampire into unconsciousness.

Ty knelt down to face the shifters. "Why was this council lackey after you? Was he right about just wanting a high from your blood or is there something else? As you can tell, I'm not some weak youngling. I'm quite powerful. I don't want to harm you, but I do want to take you to my," Ty hesitated, he had wanted to say 'friend', "acquaintance, a witch named Elspeth Harman. She's the Crone of Circle Daybreak. She is a good witch in every sense of the word. I hear shifters can smell lies. If so, then you know I'm telling the truth. What do you say? Attempt to flee from me and fail, or come quietly and meet a good witch who will help you in any way she can? She is very old, but also very powerful."

With that, Ty left the response to the shifters. Regardless of their decision, they would see Elspeth. He would hate to invoke her wrath again by bringing them in by force, but his slight psychic abilities were going haywire around these two. Almost like they had around Lena, only not as bad. Perhaps it was only one of the shifters setting off his psychic alarms, but either way, he was willing to bet his fangs that one wouldn't come without the other.

+ Beating up those two Men in Black wannabes that had been following her around during her shift at the casino and leaving them in a dumpster behind a hotel had really made Lena's day. It was always nice to work off some frustration, even if she had to hold back because they were just human. She left them there to stink up some and headed back to her apartment wondering just why exactly she suddenly had three days off after having all that time off after the blasted riot. Still, it gave her a chance to work on a bounty tip she'd gotten day before yesterday.

She frowned, wondering just how far away Salt Lake City was, and then shrugged. It's not like she was going to obey very many traffic laws anyway. While magic other than fire came to her with great difficulty she could pull them off eventually if she put her mind to it and her treasured bike was usually where she put the effort in. Law enforcement would simply not notice it, not even in pictures and recordings. It'd been tiring but it was worth it, considering she got places faster. This trip would maybe take 6 hours, on the outside.

Lena wasn't the only one wondering about the sudden time off after lots of time off and Zach couldn't for the life of him figure it out either. Unlike Lena though, he didn't have anything else he could do. He couldn't even get her to help him with his baseball skills since one of the others on the team had a baseball-mad cousin recently move to the area. Lena had voluntarily (and, to his mind, rather gladly, about the only positive emotion he'd ever seen out of the girl) given up her reserve spot so the sports mad boy could replace her.

Zach hopped off the bus in front of his apartment building, still thinking. It was becoming something of an obsession to try and figure out what made Lena, and by extension, Kero, tick. It was strange, they were two practically opposite polar opposites and yet…something about them seemed eerily similar. His musings were interrupted by the roar of a motorbike coming up out of the buildings underground car-park.

A battered-looking dirt bike roared out of the drive and into the street. As it passed him he recognised Lena behind the goggles. _Well that's weird. I know for a fact I got out of the casino before Lena did, and that was the first bus back here. Maybe she drove to work today? But I don't remember seeing that bike before, ever._ His musings ended with a sigh that even the Anti-Social-South-American-Ice-Queen-Lena had something to do on her days off, but he, probably one of the friendliest people you'd ever meet, didn't.

Kind of pathetic really.

The first time she saw the car, in Salt Lake City, she was impressed. Gleaming black, a '67 Impala. She'd not had time to have a proper look, sadly, as it looked very well maintained and she could appreciate a good piece of machinery. Even if her own transportation looked like a well-loved heap of snot, the mechanical side of it was perfect. The second time she saw The Car (capital letters and all) was on her way back to Vegas, after finding out her tip was a bust because the target had already moved on.

Maybe it was time she ditched the casino gig and chased bounties again; using the flat she'd rented in Vegas as a base. She'd been heading south on the highway when she'd come upon it. This time she noticed the military-issue government number plates. Damned unusual to see a government employee with taste in cars; most used those civilian tanks otherwise known as Humvees. She'd zipped past on her bike, having enough time to see two males sitting in the front before she was in front once more and leaving them behind for dead.

The third time she saw it, it was parked on her street. The next time she saw it was later that same night, in the casino carpark and something told her that it was time to end her self-imposed isolation from her kin to find out what in hell was going on.

It took all of two seconds for Blade and Vicious to decide what to do. Vicious was sorely missing his old witch companion, and Blade just plain thought this vamp was HOT! A silly shy grin was all Blade could muster, and Vicious a head nod and a tail wag. Ty escorted them to his ride for the night.

Vicious was looking forward to meeting another friendly witch. He had enjoyed Willow's company when she was around, all her grand tales of old friends and leaning magic craft. He was sure some of the tales where made up where her memory failed, however every time she spoke he would learn something new and no tale was every told the same way twice.

Blade was also looking forward to meeting the witch too, a new friend. But in the car her thoughts soon turned to exploring all the new buttons that the ride had, much to the annoyance of the chauffeur. At one stage Ty looked as if he had had enough to and was about to snap. While the whole array of interesting buttons looked too tempting to resist, Blade thought it against her health to continue. So she instead decided to make conversation.

"Thanks for saving our furs..." she started off.

A while later they arrived at their destination. Ty announced that he was going to a have a quick private word with this witch before inviting them in. Blade and Vicious watched him walk off into a shop of some kind.

Once out of view, Blade turned to the driver and launched a lot of questions aimed at learning a little more about the vamp that had saved them. They had known enough about vamps except to stay away from them. Their fathers were contacted up North to hunt vamps on an opposing side. They knew vamps could be quick, intelligent and very resourceful; but very prone to looking out for number one. Their fathers had tales of some that when corned and about to die, would plead for their (lack of) life and make pledges to switch sides. Their fathers knew better than to trust a vamp, something that they were sure to instill into their youngsters.

The questions asked of the driver and responses provided assured the two shape-shifters that they were at least in honourable hands.

Blade got an odd tingling along her spine. She hit her head below the window of the ride. Vicious was already doing the same. As the feeling subsided, they poked their heads up to see the Chevy round a corner.

"Hay...isn't that..." Blade's voice trailed off as she caught sight of Ty re-appearing at the door. Vicious was already nodding in agreement about the recognition of the black car "They do get around."

Ty appeared at the window, announcing that they were to follow him inside.

+ Sam was amused. Dean, on the other hand, was frustrated, probably in more ways than one. He'd been hitting on girls left and right, but apparently in Vegas, they really _had_ 'heard them all', leaving Dean decidedly dateless. Luckily, it meant they could actually do the work they were supposed to. First port of call once they'd hit Vegas was to track down the girl in the video, hopefully without her kicking their arses in the process, as she had with the local agents. They'd found her apartment building easily enough and went inside for a look when Dean pulled what looked like a mutated Walkman out of his coat pocket while they were in the elevator.

"Dean…is that my Walkman?"

"No, this is _my_ home-made EMF detector."

The shit-eating grin on Dean's face would have been enough to make Sam want to hit him, were it not for the fact he'd expected that kind of answer. So instead he watched as Dean put the earphones on and turned the…thing…on. On top near the buttons he'd added a row of small LED lights. Currently they were almost all green. As he waved it around the elevator about half turned orange near the buttons, but all of them did when he put it near the ceiling. He grinned again.

"Going up?"

In the end Sam wasn't sure if the Walkman was really all that useful. Sure, they'd found their target's door, where all the lights turned red, but there were two other doors that reacted with the same intensity (both on different floors) as well as half-a-dozen more that had various shades of red and yellow. In addition nearly every hallway ceiling was mostly yellow, with every second floor having patches of red. Either they'd hit the jackpot, or there was something more going on here. Personally Sam thought their target was paranoid about the supernatural, as well as being a part of it. Dean liked the jackpot theory better, naturally.

Later they stopped by the casino where their target worked. Her name really was just 'Lena'. All her official paperwork had the absolute minimum of information. The obligatory photo in her file gave Sam the creeps, something about people with different-coloured eyes always did, but when it was so obvious…yeah, creepy. Especially when you combined it with the part of her tattoo that could be seen. He made a mental note to investigate tattoo parlours to try and find out where she'd had it done. At least her boss was okay. Al was huge, but he had that 'gentle giant' feel to him.

Then he dropped the bombshell.

"It's your lucky day fellas, you just missed her." Sam and Dean looked at each other, incredulous. How was _missing_ the chance to interview their target a _good_ thing?

When they asked Al shuddered. "Boys, I dunno how I'm supposed to tell you this so I'll say it as straight as I can: Lena could give Hannibal Lecter the creeps and send Jack the Ripper running screaming for his mummy just by _looking_ in their direction. Especially today, she was pissed off and I for one did not ask her why. I like my teeth right where they are thank-you!"

After that they spoke to some of the employees that were there that had 'encountered' Lena in her time working there. In the case of one other gentle giant ("Dude! Call me Zack! 'Mr. Fletcher' makes me want to look for a responsible adult!")

They found out what Al meant about teeth. When asked about the shiner that was his left eye Zack sobered and told them not to ask Lena about her weekend under _any_ circumstances…unless they were masochistic of course. He also told them that the odds of Lena opening her door to anyone were so slim that you'd be better off lurking in the building's foyer and risk a black eye by ambushing her.

After that they decided to widen their search to 'other' weird happenings the next day and nearly got themselves laughed out of town. They started in a video-rental store chatting to the teen-Goth-punk behind the counter, when he was asked about "anything weird" that had gone on in Vegas, he laughed at Sam.

"Dude, this is _Vegas_, you're gonna have to be a lot more specific on what you mean by 'weird'!"

As if to illustrate his point, Priscilla 'Queen of the Desert' chose that moment to walk up to the register to rent out _High School Musical_. Neither Winchester bothered seeing which, nor did they ask anymore questions in the video store. That incident did, however, open their eyes. As they looked around Vegas there were 'odd' or 'weird' things everywhere. Everything from Mimes and female Elvis impersonators to a Man-Faye and a cat-girl and yet no-one batted an eyelid. After all, it was Vegas, and this was 'normalcy'.

So, abandoning that line of inquiry (for now anyway) they moved onto their secondary target: The man known only as Tylendil. This was a pain for a couple of reasons.

1. The man was notoriously reclusive, and rarely seen in public. In fact the last tine he'd been seen in public, besides lurking in security footage from the casino their primary (Lena) worked at was several years ago. As a result, they simply could not get into contact with the man, and they couldn't do a little unauthorised entry into his house (well…okay, it was actually a flipping mansion).

2. The man's driver was even better than Dean, and knew Vegas far better to boot. Their first night tailing him was pretty much a bust until they stumbled across his car parked outside an arts supply store. They marked it down as a place of interest and kept moving. They'd come back and investigate the business in the morning.

Unfortunately for Sam, Dean's favourite type of girl would be minding the store in the morning. Blond, and fairly stupid. It would be a long day.

* Kero tiredly flipped through the book the vampire had given her. She had worked overnight again. It was early morning as she read. It was a Night World book, she realized. Not just some human fantasy. A Night person had wrote this and passed it off as human fantasy. The vampire had actually given her the book he had spoken of previously. He hadn't said a word, just dropped it off at Crone Harman's place, along with two predator shifters who seemed to prefer small, fluffy animals as their form. The author was describing the races of a world she simply called "Azeroth".

The usual Night races...vampires, witches, shifters...along with other things that she hadn't seen before. Goat things with tentacles on their faces...green monsters...blue and white elves...bipedal cows...some of it wasn't real, but most of it was very real and very accurate. The writer was a Night person herself or an Old Soul. Old Souls were humans who were reincarnated over and over again, never truly moving on to where ever one moved on to. She flipped past a particularly ugly picture of a green monster called an "orc" and went to the page she had book marked and read over and over again. Dragons.

This image was of a human woman turning into one. Instead of leathery wings and scales, this dragon was nearly see-through. Almost as if it were slightly incorporeal. That was how dragons could fly. There was no way wings the size a dragon is normally portrayed as having could fly. The mass would simply be too much, hollow bones or not. The solution was to become a being that wasn't completely in this world or the next. That required a spell. Avians shifters only ruled due to their enslavement of witches, and the witches' weak powers at the time.

This was evidence that a strong spell was not required to invoke the incorporeal dragon-form. Perhaps she wouldn't need Thea's dark family member after all. These Ether-dragons, as she began calling them, were very powerful. In dragon form, the shifter had magic, strength, and flight. With this on their side, how could the shifters' have been defeated all those years ago? Kero fell asleep dreaming of flying through the skies on the wings of an Ether-dragon.

Thea worriedly shuffled around the shop that Gran had left her in charge of while she was gone somewhere with that leech and those two fluffies. Gran wouldn't be gone long, since the leech couldn't stay awake during the day for long, but still, someone had to open the store. Kero hadn't been herself when she came home from work today. It wasn't just that she had been tired, it was as if her whole demeanor had changed. Like she finally had...hope. That was the only word Thea could use to describe it. That worried her, strangely.

What was it the leech had done to Kero to give her hope? Thea sincerely hoped there was no mind control involved. If there was...there was no saving that leech from the wrath of Gran Harman. Thea jumped and fell over a nearby stand holding runestones as the door suddenly opened and customers entered. The runes scattered across the floor and Thea cursed, looking up at the customers with a malevolent stare. At least, as malevolent as someone like Thea could manage. These two men didn't look like the normal New Age-y people that frequented the store nor were they Night Worlders, of that Thea was sure. Human as human could be. Though they were very attractive...

Sam elbowed Dean as he grinned at the gorgeous blonde who had fell over a stand of runestones. He recognized that look. The ditzy blonde girl was just Dean's type and there was no doubt he'd flirt with her. From the way she looked at Dean, no doubt she would reciprocate. Sam was slightly offended, but that was immediately replaced by a plan to have Dean chat up the girl/flirt with her/whatever while Sam looked around the place. It would completely distract the dumb blonde and give Dean some sense of purpose.

"Dude, she's got the hots for you. Go for it. I'll check things out while you...do your thing." Dean readily agreed, as Sam knew he would, and Sam set out looking around the store.

From just looking around, it appeared to be nothing more than a New Age/wiccan type store for those into that kind of thing, but on a closer look, Sam could tell this wasn't your ordinary New Age hippie store. He stopped at a shelf and wrinkled his brow at something called "Vampire blood-activated". That wasn't something you saw everyday. He glanced at the shelf below it "Werewolf blood-deactivated, ask for the Crone".

"The Crone"? He wondered. Who was that? Dean was actively distracting the blonde. She was giggling and wriggling around on a chair she had pulled from behind the counter to talk to Dean on. She hadn't pulled up a chair for him. Likely admiring his body. The blonde's shirt had somehow popped a few top buttons. Dean was leaning over, not even trying to conceal that he was checking out her goods. She didn't care and seemed to be making that entirely the point.

"So, how are you liking Vegas...Dean, you said your name was? That's such a cute name. It really fits you." Thea leaned over, giving Dean a good look at her assets.

Dean didn't conceal his interest in her ample breasts. "I'm liking Vegas a lot. Even more now. Thea is a really unique name, especially for such a unique woman as yourself. I don't really know the town very well though. Perhaps...you could show me around sometime? Like tonight at 7?"

Thea nearly squee'd. This hottie was asking her out. "OF COURSE! I'd love to! I know the perfect place! There's a restaurant that this-" Thea gagged, coughed, and realized that Gran had bespelled her. She had been about to say shifter. It was a good thing Gran's spells even worked on family or Thea's mouth would have exposed them. While angry with Gran, she still wanted her date with the hot dude.

"Ahem, excuse me. Your...uh...partner...friend? Knocked over some vervain. I'm a little allergic." She finally glanced Sam's way. He had indeed broken a bottle of vervain. Sam smiled apologetically.

"Sorry. Clumsy. I can't find what I'm looking for now. Maybe we'll come back later. Come on, Dean." Sam motioned his brother toward the door.

"Hold on, Sam! So, uh, what restaurant was that before Sam caused your coughing fit?"

Thea smiled. "A little place down the road. Hardly anyone knows about it, but they serve the best Italian food. So around 7, right?" She leaned over, giving Dean another view and smiled what she hoped was a seductive smile at him.

Dean, being Dean, didn't notice that Thea's seductive smile appeared more like a grimace. He only noticed boobs and immediately said yes to her and went with Sam. Back in the Impala, Dean turned angrily upon Sam.

"Dude, what did you do that for? She was totally flashing her tits at me. I might've got more if you hadn't broke that bottle."

Sam shook his head. "Dean, I didn't break the bottle until she was done coughing. Something else caused it. I only broke the bottle because I knew she would use it as an excuse. Our ditzy blonde is a lot smarter than she seems."

Dean gazed back at the shop, crestfallen. "But...boobs..." Sam rolled his eyes and started to pull the Impala out of the parking lot when another car pulled up nearby. It wasn't just any car. It was a sleek, black limo that had to have cost more than any house they'd ever owned.

A woman so old she looked like she shouldn't even be alive climbed out, helped by what Sam assumed was the chaffeur. Once out of the vehicle, the woman appeared to have no problem whatsoever making her way across the gravelly parking lot. She turned then, and her eyes locked with Sam's. He couldn't help but feel as if she were reading his soul. With some effort Sam jerked his gaze away, catching a glimpse of the other passenger in the car, a red-haired man, fast asleep against the door. It was only a glimpse, but Sam somehow recognized the man.

His memory just wouldn't pull it up for some reason. He glanced back to where the old woman was, and found that she was gone. Had she done something to him?

"Sam, dude, lets go. Lets follow that limo. The dude with the red hair? He kinda looks a lot like that Tylendil dude we're supposed to find. Lets tail em."

Sam shook his head. "Uhm...I dunno. I don't think so. Lets just...lets go back to the hotel. You have to get ready for your date, right?" Sam shook his head again. That old woman had definitely done something to him. He just didn't know what.

+ Crossing the border to get _out_ of the United States was disgustingly easy. Too bad it didn't go both ways, but no matter. For the first time in just over three years Lena set foot onto non-US soil. Why she was doing this she really had no idea, though perhaps it was time for her to lay her ghosts to rest, as much as she could anyway. But before she headed into the jungle, she should probably give old Matthias a heads up, and clear her debt to him.

Crazy old geezer that he was, no doubt he'd be one of the more affected by their race 'coming out' as it were. While the Supernatural remained a secret he could explain away his cat-like eyes as a genetic anomaly/mutation. Lena's instincts told her that once their existence was outed though, that would change and he needed to know so he could prepare himself for any potential backlash.

Matthias ran a bar in what amounted to a glorified truck stop. It was dark, dingy and looked unclean to most city-folk, with its bare wooden supports, no ceiling and hard packed dirt floor. In one corner was a fighting cage, a necessary evil when you have large amounts of testosterone-fuelled, drunk and touchy truckers in one place. The darkness was just so those with more questionable looks, like Matthias' eyes could go unnoticed for longer. Business was in full swing when Lena walked in, and a more incongruous sight there never was, someone of Lena's size and stature, surrounded by large, burly men (and some women) in a seedy-looking bar, late at night.

Very few of the many who watched her make her way across to the bar realised she was an Alpha predator and those that did quickly left. Lena ignored them all and perched on the barstool she'd always used in the past, to the collective horror of the regulars. _Everyone_ knew that barstool was off-limits, for reasons unknown. Matthias himself enforced it, using the business end of a loaded shotgun. On this occasion though, something different happened.

Instead of threatening this little girl with his trusty 12-guage, Matthias instead poured out a rather large helping of single-malt Scotch from the lone bottle behind the bar (that no one was allowed to drink) and placed the glass before the girl, before delivering the rest of the drinks.

It was official. The world was coming to an end, the Apocalypse brought on by a little girl who acted as if she was there every damn day.

Matthias delivered the last drink to an American "Secret" Agent (too bad he hadn't got the secret part down pat yet) on his way back to Lena. He looked at Lena, who was ignoring the world in favour of savouring her drink. She looked…well. The US seemed to agree with her, and she felt more powerful than before, which could be a little concerning, kid was damn powerful before too. The only thing different about her that he could see was the tattoo he couldn't see, though his eyesight was more than good enough to spot the concealing makeup that covered it.

"What're you doin' back 'ere girl? Last I saw you, you swore you was leavin' and you weren't never comin' back. Was the most sensible thing I ever heard you say." Lena's mismatched gaze pinned him in place. He'd forgotten just what it was like to look her in the eye. Finally she blinked and set her glass down. Ignoring his question for now she spoke, knowing her cryptic message would send the Agent into spasms, as well as his superiors when he reported in.

"They're tearing up the Treaty."

Matthias stiffened as he deciphered her comment, noticing that the Agent had some the same. 'They' could only be Shifter Elders and the 'Treaty'… "Why?"

"It was broken, one too many times. You heard about the killings?" A nod. "We found out why. Everyone else knew about it, but us, and…"

"The last straw, for a camel already loaded with one bale too many?" Lena glanced into Matthias' eyes again as she took in his strangely worded metaphor and made a small sound of agreement. "And…"

Lena's eyes bored into his own, as though she could read his soul. "And," she mimicked, "They're going to reveal us, our existence."

His eyes narrowed, "when?" Matthias wasn't sure if she knew or not. But then, it was Lena. She usually knew things she wasn't supposed to.

"Officially? Two weeks. Until then they're encouraging us to drop hints all over."

Matthias did the calculation, knowing Lena would use her code for the date, and frowned, "That soon? Why you tellin' me this girl? You got no obligations to me and mine." Matthias knew he was one of the few of shifter descent Lena could stand to be around, much less actually like, having similar circumstances surrounding his birth, but this was still out of character for her. Perhaps the US was even better for her than he thought…? The patently incredulous 'are you stupid?' look Lena gave him told him she wasn't doing this out of the goodness of her heart, her next words confirming that.

"I owed you a debt, Matthias. I do not like to _owe_. You know that, and now I do not." Matthias heard the warning in her voice and nodded agreement as she downed the last of her Scotch.

"Aye, girl. Slate's clean." He watched as she stood up again and stretched, drawing the eye of many in the room. "That be all you came down this way for?"

His question was rewarded with a sharp look. "No…I thought it about time I went 'home' for a bit. Unfinished business and all that. Figured now was a good time to lay all that to rest. Should be back this way a few days after the Treaty is torn to shreds."

Matthias nodded. At least she wasn't going to be running away from any troubles that would start in a few days because of the outing of the shifter community, just avoiding the worst of it, which was probably just plain sensible.

Elspeth sighed as the black impala drove away, in a different direction to Ty's limousine. For a moment she wasn't certain her little spell had worked on the human boy. It was a simple thing, just a redirection of his attention and suspicions away from her little family, as dysfunctional as it was. There was no need to spell the older one; he was fixated on her granddaughter's chest. Elspeth sighed again, they grew so quickly.

And all of this on top of the headaches the shifter community was giving the rest of the Night World. The Council tried to get them to back down with threats (never a good idea, though try telling the Council that!) but all they did was point out that the Treaty had been breached, and thus, they were well within their rights to do whatever the bloody hell they wanted. Already there were hints and rumours being started and spread around the world. Elspeth entered the shop and sat in the chair vacated by Thea with another sigh as she rubbed her aching head. Randomly, it occurred to her that she seemed to be sighing a lot lately.

"Gran…?" At Thea's uncertain query she glanced up. "What's happening?"

"Many things my child. Many things. Few of them good. The Elders have officially torn up the Agreement with the other two parties. Already they're laying the foundation to their official announcement. They're only giving the rest of us this interlude to prepare ourselves for whatever we decide to do." At least Thea appeared to be following her purposely vague statement. One could never be too careful, especially with the humans snooping around so closely. "Doubtlessly the rest of us will use the upheaval of their announcement to bury our own existence even further, though we'd never be able to hide from the Children of the Wilds."

Master Sergeant Ruby Declan listened to the recording that had been forwarded to her from the CIA, again. In a little less than two weeks something big was going to go down. She cursed and hit her desk with a fist. She'd known something was going to happen, and soon, but…damn it all she thought they'd have more time! Picking up the phone she hit the speed-dial for Sam's mobile, hoping he was someplace he could talk. Luckily, he was in his hotel room, apparently researching over the net.

"We're running out of time Sam. Something big just came in from the southern border, have a listen to this, the opening statement was made by a bar owner just south of the border, the other speaker is an unidentified girl anywhere between the ages of 12 and 30."

Without giving Sam any time to process the flood of information she hit the playback for the recording again.

" _What're you doin' back 'ere girl? Last I saw you, you swore you was leavin' and you weren't never comin' back. Was the most sensible thing I ever heard you say."_ Mechanically Sam began to dissect the conversation. Male voice, late 30's to early fifties, Latin-American accent, probably only had a very basic education.

A short pause, and then, "_They're tearing up the Treaty."_ Young, female, late teens at the youngest, low, cool, tightly controlled voice, educated, absolutely no emotional inflection whatsoever with an accent he couldn't place for the life of him. __

"Why?"

"It was broken, one too many times. You heard about the killings? ... We found out why. Everyone else knew about it, but us, and…"

"The last straw, for a camel already loaded with one bale too many? ...And…?"

"And, they're going to reveal us, our existence."

"When?"

"Officially? Two weeks. Until then they're encouraging us to drop hints all over."

"That soon? Why you tellin' me this girl? You got no obligations to me and mine."

"I owed you a debt, Matthias. I do not like to owe_. You know that, and now I do not."_

"Aye, girl. Slate's clean…That be all you came down this way for?"

"No…I thought it about time I went 'home' for a bit. Unfinished business and all that. Figured now was a good time to lay all that to rest. Should be back this way a few days after the Treaty is torn to shreds."

A click signified the end of the recording as Sam mulled over what had been said. "That's not much to go on…Do we have anything on this 'Matthias'?" A low growl from Ruby answered his question.

"By the time our agents were on the scene the man was gone. And before you ask, the girl was riding off on her damn motorbike by the time he got outside. He did give a vague description. Long dark hair, most likely black, tan skin, definitely some Native South American blood, petite features, short stature. Probably the most obvious feature was her eyes. He said they were different colours, one dark the other light. Because of the lighting in the bar he couldn't get a better look at the colours."

That description sounded familiar…Sam's mind made the connection with an almost audible click.

"Lena."

Ruby almost dropped the phone. "What?!"

"The girl, her name's Lena. Remember the girl in that security video beating the crap out of those guys you sent us here to make contact with? You just described her to a T, with the exception of her tattoo, which would be easy enough to cover. She's got one dark green eye and one that's a yellow colour. She quit her job and skipped town two days ago…on a motorbike."

**TIME DEVIATION**

"The most respected Ms Harman, it is pleasure to finally meet you. Willow spoke highly of you, I was quite delighted when Ty announced that we would be meeting you."

Blade chuckled, "Decent Fang, that one."

"The night is important so I'll make this quick." Blade lean forward and spoke in low, but quick voice to Harman.

"You are in doubt aware that there is growing unease amongst those of the Nightworld. The treaty is beginning to dissolve...like sugar on a hot plate. Now in the past, thanks largely due to the over inflated egos, no one has managed to get themselves organised to form much of an force to do real damage. Fangs aren't smart enough until they reach thousands of years. Witches only gain awesome power late into their lives, then it's usually too late. Shifters are too wrapped up in bureaucracy to decide who is leader and what they are actually against. So lucky for the greater good, no one posed a serious threat. Yet...yet there is another force which seeks to destroy the Nightworld as it stands...in the Night that is. This force that seeks to control the world through the use of the Nightworld." Without missing a beat Blade continued.

"Things are in motion. There is something dark and bad coming our way...to Vegas  
It's taken me a while, and a lot of false alarms, but I think the main event, the cataclysm will start here. It's no accident that creatures of the Nightworld are turning up here. Hell, I saw a Shifter Cetacean the other day. We're miles from the sea! Unconsciously they are being drawn here. And the Fangs and Witches have also followed the shifters here."

Blade paused, thinking hard...almost debating something. Harman looked like she was about to say something. Blade cut her off again.

"There is a very powerful kickass shifter that has come to your attention...have you met her?

If the ramblings of an old madden Witch are true...this new force seeks to use this kickass shifter for their means.

Their reign of terror and darkness will start with this shape shifter.

"Now this shifter isn't evil...her role to Willow was...largely unobtainable."

Blade paused, leaning back on the couch. "The identity of this new force was also unobtainable to Willow, she only knew it is ancient and evil". She rubbed her chin, again debating with herself.

"Now by coincident or design, two of the most resourceful, skilled...and handsome (Blade threw in a purr) Human Hunters have turned up in this fair city." Blade smiled as a look of recognition appeared on Harman. "I think it would be wise to seek their council"

Blade let Harman digest some the wall of information. The silence hung for a while.

"The Nightworld needs to unite if we are to have a chance to keep our secret."  
Blade looked at Harman. "Will you seek to unite the Witches?"

Harman stared at Blade. Great thought Blade...She thinks I'm mad.

"The other night Vicious and I overheard the council of shifters planning to reveal the Nightworld to the Human world. They are sick of the treaty being laughed at. Of them being laughed at...Their plan is to reveal themselves first so they can kind of get off on the better foot with humans. I think this is where things will erupt; when the new force will seek to make a move. This new group relies on the Nightworld remaining hidden until they have their claws firmly strangling it."

Harman still looked shocked.

"Yes I know. We're under a gun." Blade added.

**Some 30 years ago.**

Willow chanted low and quickly, unwavering to the chaos of battle surrounding her. On her knees, she raked her fingers through the earth, exhausting was starting to show.

Krystal glanced down to the 40 year old witch. Arrow knocked, she glanced at the other Guardian Stone. He stood a stood a few paces in front of her, large Battle Axe at the ready, staring at the wooden defences surrounding them.

Willow had never summoned a Mountain Troll before, or even attempted to. Trolls were notoriously hard to summoned and even harder to deal with. Willow and her Witch companions had their backs against the wall, the Shifter army bearing down on them, and she saw little other options. Willow only hoped the Troll saw the Shifters as a bigger threat then her.

As the shifter army broke through their ranks, Willow retreated her small company to a cave. Once there Willow had slammed her palms onto the ground, throwing up a wooden barrier. It would slow the advancing soldiers, but would not hold. She had hoped it would provide them with the time she needed. That was an hour ago.

CRACK! Splinters flew through the air, showering River and Krystal. Krystal let fly an arrow, smacking into the skull of the Shifter stupid enough to stick its head through the newly made hole.

Tensely Krystal and Stone awaited the next ugly Shifter to show its head. A stink hit the air...and the attack on the wall cut completely. With dread, it dawned on the two the new tactic to bring the wooden wall down.  
"It's taken them long enough to figure it out" Stone hissed.

The natural enemy of wood...fire.

The wall erupted, consumed by fire. Then the Shifters feverishly left through the flames, eager to claim the greatest prize of this battle.

Krystal released arrow after arrow, as Stone took down Shifter after Shifter with the impressive battle axe.

The ground grew slick with blood, Stone full of fatigue made the first fatal error. He over reached, attempted to correct and slipped up. A huge, muscular, black, sleek Canine Shifter jumped on him. Pinning him down with its bulk, grinning as it put grabbed both of Stone's arms.

"Go to hell you filthy Shifter" Stone breathed, before spitting at the grinning snout. The Canine snapped the spit, licked his lips, then pulled Stone's arms away from his body.

Krystal stopped in horror as Stone was ripped apart. Her eyes wide, she lurched forward to save him.  
Slick! A lance impaled her. Dumb-founded she stared at the pole, in a state of shock, she couldn't work it out. A Feline shifter (human form) massive both in size and bulk step forward to reclaim his lance as Krystal collapsed. He placed a boot on the body of Krystal to ground it as he yanked the lance out.

The other Shifters had left when the Canine and Feline Shifter appeared on the scene.  
The cave was now empty except for the two Shifters and Willow.  
The two Comrades grinned at each other.  
Deep in chant, Willow would have been oblivious to her companions' demise, now she was effectively a sitting duck.

"After you" The black Canine grinned to the Feline Shifter.  
"Oh no!...After you dear friend" The Feline bowed to the Canine. The two mocking the situation.

Black, as his name was took the invitation and leaped forwards, teeth bearing.

Smack! The Canine was thrown back against the cave wall. The hit had come from seemingly nowhere.

Gold, the Feline threw his stare at the Witch as Black climbed to his feet.

Willow was out of her trance and was staring with deep hatred at them.

Gold roared a challenge, changing into a massive overly muscled lion. His human voice distorting into a beasts made for a chilling sound. Willow rippled with fear inside, but remained calmed on the outside.

The fight didn't last long.

Willow, exhausted from her failed attempt to summon a Troll, couldn't physically put up a fight.  
She used a vine whip attack to keep the two at arms for a few minutes.  
But they had seen her weakness, and kept just out of reach, mocking her until Willow completely exhausted herself.

Willow collapsed onto her knees, unable to go on. She waited for the fatal blow that didn't come.  
She glared at the Shifters closing in on her.

"No, Death will not come to you today Willow." Gold sneered, as he slipped a rope around her arms, blinding them together. Gold could be confident that the fight and spirit had gone from Willow, she was no threat for the time being.

"After all" Black chuckled "There are things sooooo much worse than death"

Willow was kept as a prisoner, locked far away from the world. In a harsh prison, void of sunlight and warmth. The dungeon was that of an old ancient castle.  
Willow re-played that battle so many times over in her head, the memory haunting her. If only she had been strong enough!

She would rot there alone for 5 years.

Willow woke from a sleep. She frowned...Awake again! The cold gripped her joints almost immediately, she caught her breath from the pain. She hoped she would be able to get back to sleep. Sleep was the only comfort and release of her prison. She ignored the little shuffling noise coming from the wall. Rats again.

The little scuffling noise started up again. 1 meter away from Willow, the mortar and stones had crumbled away revealing cavities in the wall.  
Willow could see some dust coming from the hold. Rustle...rustle. More dust.

*CHEW* with a petite sneeze, a little kitten was expelled from the wall.

Willow eyed the kitten, studying it as it battled with more sneezes and dust in its eyes. Her eyes grew wide as she sensed the blood line of the kitten.  
As the kitten struggled, Willow snatched the little ball of fur. There was no mistaking it; this was the offspring of Gold.

Willow glared with hatred at the little thing, the kitten could just make at Willow, its eyes clearing.  
Upon seeing the Witch the kitten mewed a greeting followed with a smile.  
Willow's faced twisted with hatred.  
The kitten felt the grip become tighter. Tighter and tighter...the little kitten let out a perplexed squeak. It couldn't understand the pain, it began to writhe.  
The little kitten began to cough, followed by gaps for air.  
Willow could feel its life fading. She smiled.

Wait...No, no, NO! Willow shook her head.

No, this wasn't her. She relaxed her grip on the kitten. The kitten began to breathe again.  
Willow held the kitten in her hand, rubbing its little chest, coaxing it back to life.  
She sighed and leant back against the wall while the kitten recovered. Looking around her prison, a tear rolled down her cheek.

As she whipped away the tear, she caught sight of a little puppy at her feet. The little puppy cocked its head at her. Clearly puzzled by the kittens distress.

"Oh great. The children of my captures, and I can't even so much take revenge" Willow said aloud. "Cruse my peaceful ways" Willow smiled and gave the little puppy a tickle under the chin. This puppy was the offspring of Black.  
The puppy wagged its tail before dropping to the ground, inviting a tummy scratch.

From then on, Willow was never lonely for long with the kitten and puppy. They returned day after day, amusing Willow with their playful, youthful antics.

To her delight, the two shifters were lacking their father's sinister temperaments. Willow learned from them how their fathers were pushing them into warfare, while the puppy wasn't very good at it, the kitten wanted no bar of it.

One evening after the Shifters had left Willow, she was settling into some food they had brought her.  
She gagged as she became aware of a presence she hoped she would never feel again.

Gold appeared before her.

He grinned as she poised herself, ready for anything.  
"Oh come now. Surely you are getting too old for this?" He smiled.  
"You evil son of a bi-"  
"Shhhhh...There is no need for that now is there?" Gold produced a healthy looking, ripe apple and a fresh loaf of bread. "I bring a peace offering"

Willow took the food offered. She had her doubts about the offering but she wanted to portray no fear. Unable to resist she stated on the apple.

It did not disappoint.

"Your clan is gone. Its warriors and Guardians vanquished. Alone you pose no threat" Gold continued. Gold knew Willow was most powerful surround by those of her own kind. "I now offer you freedom in exchange for something"

Willow studied Gold, chewing on a bite of apple. "Just you?"

Gold nodded, "Just me"

Willow bit more of the apple, waiting for him to go on.

"No doubt you've met my daughter Blade, and her brother Vicious"

Willow thought it odd to refer to them as siblings. There was no blood relationship.

"It would be also clear that they are not cut out for the life of war" It pained Gold to admit it; his daughter had brought the greatest shame on him. His comrades had suggested both she and Vicious be killed. An offer Gold feared Black would soon accept.

Willow picked up the sadness and pain in his voice.

"I want you to take Blade and Vicious away from all this" He said quickly, stepping forward and breaking her constraints. "I don't care where you go, just get out of my sight" With that, Gold stormed away.

That was the last Willow ever saw of Gold and that prison. She collected the little innocent Shifters and fled. Willow found them a nice secluded forest to live in utter peace.

Some years later, Willow and Blade were in a training session.  
Today Willow was teaching Blade the ways of inner strength. They were sitting crossed legged facing each other by a little creek that bubbled near to their home.  
Willow was pleased with the results today, they had progressed much further.  
Blade's eyes were closed and sweat was trickling down her temples.  
"Steady child...do not fight it." Willow softly cooed.  
Blade frowned...then took in a deep sigh. Allowing peace washed over her, a secret smiled crept over her face. Blade lifted her hands up palms to the sky, eyes lightly closed.  
Willow watched in utter joy as she saw the air disport in her palms.  
So close, Willow had to use everything in her to keep calm, allowing Blade to concentrate.  
Willow held her breath...the air disruption flicked white...  
THERWACK!  
Blade and head over heels into the creek.  
She left out a thrill shrill as she jumped up onto the embankment. Cats hate water.

Hysterical laugh came from the water. "Oh Yeah! Whose the ambush king!" Vicious punched the air.  
Blade had regained herself. "Oh yeah...well guess who just left the Chair" Blade turned on her heels and bolted for their home.

"Noooo" Vicious yelped as he took off after her.

Willow smiled. Kids! The Chair was an old lounge chair that the two had thought over constantly. It was the best seat in the house. Vicious has claimed it for the past 4 hours. Stubbornly refusing to leave it.

Willow picked herself up. Sighing...they had been so close...so close. Oh well, there will always be tomorrow.

* Ty groaned as he sat up on the bed, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. Somehow, he had made it to his bed from the car in full sunlight. He had his new driver to thank for that. A young African American witch with powers only beginning to awaken. Jaime would be a powerful witch someday. Ty wondered if he could get Jaime training from the Crone herself. Probably, knowing her. Jaime would be powerful, and the Crone wanted all she could get for Circle Daybreak.

Even while drifting in and out of sleep while in the car, he could feel the eyes of those humans on him. The one that seemed to have ADD and the one that...wasn't quite human but didn't know it. His blood smelled thick and rich. Witch blood. Powerful, untapped witch blood. Ty had wanted to feed on him then and there. But the sun exposure and his own drowsiness didn't allow for it and the dumb looking one likely wasn't as dumb as he appeared, like Thea, who Ty had overheard had a date with her male counterpart. Tonight.

Ty licked his lips, fangs elongating and the urge to feed already upon him, as it always was when he first awoke. Perhaps he would just feed from one of his servants tonight. They were willing donors. Or willing enough once he'd gotten done mind controlling them. Ty leaned back on the silk cushions again, settling himself into the bed and rung a nearby buzzer for one of his servants. A human one eventually showed up, and Ty used a bit of mind control to force her to him on the bed. He licked her throat, and sank his fangs deep.

Once he'd drunk his fill, he let her go. He'd thought of having sex with her, since it had been quite some time for him, but decided that would be rape, and even vampires have standards. Besides, firey Lena set his cold blood hot in a way no one had in centuries. If he was having sex with anyone, he'd want it to be her. He was sure it would be just as hot as Lena herself. In a way, he'd already raped his servant by taking her blood without consent.

She was very well paid though, so in a way she was compensated. The woman didn't even have to WORK anymore after working for Ty for two years. He paid his help that well. Once she mindlessly made her way out of the room (to go lay down at Ty's compulsion), Ty licked the excess blood from his lips and picked up a phone near the bed. Those two humans who tailed him wanted to talk, they would get their talk.

The vampire deliberately waited until past 7, when the one called Dean would be on his date. He wanted to talk to Sam alone. Easily dialing the phone number for Sam's cell (which he had "looked up" via his driver), Ty waited until he heard a small beep indicating an answer. "Hello, Sam." He grinned, fangs gleaming in the shadowed room, when he heard Sam's intake of breath.

Sam almost flipped over his chair when he received that call. The phone number was listed as a jumble of numbers, one that he wouldn't be able to call back or trace. "Yeah, this is Sam. Who is this?"

"I believe you've been attempting, poorly I might add, to follow me over the last few days. My name is Tylendil. I think you'll recognize the name..." the velvety voice trailed off as Sam gasped. "Yes, that Tylendil. I think you and I should have a chat. No more tailing me. No more following me. Come over to my house. Here's the address." Ty gave him the address to a house Sam didn't recognize in a neighborhood Sam didn't recognize.

"Don't try and bring Dean or call him or let him know where you're going. If you do, I'll know and you won't make it past my guards. Fair night to you, Sam Winchester. See you." The line went dead. Sam blinked and stared at his cell phone. He had planned on calling Dean and telling him to call off his date with Thea. Plan downed. Oh well. He would explain to Dean later. Dean would understand. Hell, Dean would likely be out all night. Sam might beat him home. Provided Tylendil didn't have him killed.

Dean had taken the damn Impala on his date with Thea. Sam didn't have transportation. He just realized. He cursed and fumbled with his cell, perhaps he would call Tylendil back, or try to. Sam heard the crunching of gravel outside their cheap motel. A sleek black limo was waiting for him. This Tylendil missed nothing. Licking his lips nervously, Sam got into the black limo and tried to calm his nerves the entire way to Tylendil's manor. His nerves jumped again as they approached the "house"...it looked more like a giant castle. It was...in Dean's words, a frackin mansion! The gates opened as the limo approached and went down the curving drive toward Tylendil's mansion. As Sam exited the limo (he noticed no one had opened the door for him) the doors to the mansion seemed to open of their own accord. That was never a good sign. As soon as he'd crossed the threshhold, the doors slammed shut.

An african american man approached him. "The master awaits your arrival upstairs, in the bedchambers." The man bowed, and seemed to vanish. Sam's pulse quickened. This was like something out of one of those old Dracula movies.

He ascended the large spiral staircase, attempting to not look around enviously at the man's huge house and ancient looking decor. The same servant person was waiting for him near a double-door room that seemed far larger than all the others he had passed. Sam took a deep breath and entered Tylendil's bedchambers as the servant opened the door. A very slim, sharp-featured man with blood-red hair and a velvet dressing gown lay on the bed, nestled in blood red cushions that seemed to match the same velvet dressing gown and his hair. This man had a fetish for blood-red. Sam shivered at the implications and lifted his head to face Tylendil. This could only be Tylendil.

Tylendil smiled and held up a goblet of something thick and red. Sam didn't want to know what. "Welcome, Sam Winchester. Tell me, why have you been following me? I have been a model citizen. I have given the government nothing to hold against me." He smiled that same close-lipped smile and took a sip of the liquid in the goblet.

Something about the man made Sam nervous. "I, uh, we uh..." Sam was interrupted with a hand wave by Tylendil.

"Lets cut to the chase, Sam Winchester. You know humans aren't the only things in this world. Your government knows it. You know I'm not human. What am I, Sam?" The pale, slim man let another smile cross his face. Sam shook his head.

"I don't know. Not human, but I don't know. That woman at the shop, and the girl Dean's dating...they're witches. Aren't they? Are you one too? Is that why you were with them?" Sam knew this man was not a witch, but he didn't want to admit what he knew was true.

Tylendil laughed. "I am no witch. Lets just say, you're more a witch than I am." Tylendil smiled at Sam again, this time parting his lips. Long, delicate canines with a sharp, needle-like point graced his mouth. Sam felt a natural, human urge to run. Run when faced with something higher on the food chain than you. That was the natural human response, and it was going crazy right now.

"V-vampire...you're a...you..fangs...thats why you're so rich. And pale. The stuff in the cup...you're drinking blood. Ohmygod." Sam felt a wave of nausea run through him and managed to make it to a trash can nearby before vomiting up the tacos he'd had for dinner. When he finally felt better, he managed to push down the urge to run away and faced the man he now knew was a vampire.

Tylendil looked as if he were about to laugh. "The vomit smells disgusting. You'd think someone who eats dead animal flesh would have a stronger stomach. Yes, I'm a vampire. Yes, I drink blood. Yes, fangs." He flashed them again in a shit-eating grin, as Dean would say. He swirled the goblet. "Cold blood. Isn't near as good as warm, fresh blood, but it makes a nice snack. No, no, please don't throw up again, I don't think my nose could take it!"

Sam had looked ill again. "The reason I called you here...well, you want proof, soon you'll have it." He tossed a paper that had been laying next to him in Sam's direction. Sam caught it and looked at the title. _Wolf-man Attacks Couple And Child_. Oh gods. It was happening already. He and Dean were too late. Ruby wouldn't be happy.

"Why are you showing me this? To tell me that ya'll are coming out of the supernatural closet?" Sam wrinkled his brow at the vampire, confused. There was no real reason for him to do this.

Tylendil laughed, once again revealing to Sam those long, sleek canines meant for sinking into his throat. If the myths were true, he was far stronger and faster than Sam and could have drank him dry right there. Tylendil tapped his head.

"I have minor mind-reading abilities and you have no notion on how to stop an invader in your mind. I know what you're thinking. Literally. No, not all the myths are true. No, I will not drink you dry right here and now. I've already fed this night. I'm quite full. This little snack is also a pleasant diversion. From a frozen blood bag from the blood bank." He answered Sam's unspoken question as to where he got cold blood.

"No, I didn't steal it. I bought it. As you can see, I am very wealthy. It is quite easy for me. I keep frozen blood bags around in case of an emergency and as a light snack." He grinned at Sam. "I can really tell you don't like my choice of dinner. It really bothers you. You eat dead animal flesh. Why is this anymore disgusting? Anyway, we are not revealing ourselves to the world. Not on purpose anyway. The shapeshifters - people who can turn into animals, if you don't know - have broken something called the Night World treaty. The treaty says that we are not allowed to talk about or mention the Night World to any human on pain of death and/or torture." Ty clasped his hands in front of him awaiting Sam's expected response: why was he telling Sam?

"So if you're not supposed to tell any human, why are you telling me? Won't you be killed or tortured?" Sam was confused. If this was true, why tell him?

Ty smiled and settled himself deeper into the cushions, the velvety softness feeling amazing on his sensitive skin which had been painfully burnt the other day when he and the furballs went with Crone Harman.

"My dear Sam, did I ever say you were human? Take the paper and leave. Or stay and be tomorrow night's meal. Your choice. This is my way of throwing you out without having to exert myself. Get out. I have given you what I have given to very few. My cell phone number. It is written on top of the newspaper. I want you and your brother's help in stopping this. If we are revealed to the public, lets just say it will be much harder to get a good meal around here. Call me if you happen to come across anything of importance or happen to see anything else on shifters make the news. The news during the day reports a lot more than the late night news does. Now please, get out. I have some old books I would like to peruse before sunrise."

Tylendil waved his hand, dismissing Sam. Confused, Sam tucked the paper under his arm and almost ran from the manor. Transportation was waiting, of course.

Back at the motel, Dean was not there, as expected. Sam sighed. He would wait until Dean got back, talk this over with him, and then get on the phone with Ruby. She was really, really not going to be happy. This was bad news. REALLY bad news.

Sam winced and massaged his ears. The tongue lashing he'd received from Ruby through the headset had proven painful and loud. She had indeed not been happy. Dean's date had gone well. He and Thea were going on another one tomorrow. Thea was much more than a blonde ditz with big tits, Dean had told Sam, and they really hit it off. Sam knew Thea was a witch and was very much more than any of those things. He'd told Dean as much, and it didn't seem to deter his brother at all.

Dean somehow found it even hotter that a witch wanted to go out with him. Dean figured maybe if kept going out with Thea she'd let something slip, something no one would notice and something so small it would bypass the old woman's spell on her. Sam secretly bet Dean hoped Thea could somehow use magic to make sex hotter between them. Dean was shallow like that sometimes. Sam had told both Dean and Ruby about the Night World. He wondered if that would get him killed somehow. He glanced at the phone number he had added to his cell.

Ty's number. The vampire creeped him out and sickened him. He really didn't want to talk to him again anytime soon unless necessary. Dean had thought it was cool that Sam met a real live vampire, even though the thought of blood-drinking made him sick too. Sam winced and rubbed at his ears again. He sighed as he watched his brother put earbuds into his ears and begin listening to some crap on his iPod.

** Melania Halliwell let the last drop of blood fall into the cauldron, musing again on her younger son's sudden return and apologetic manner. Was he up to something or did he really MEAN it? Melania sighed. Circle Midnight needed all it could get in this final hour. She would not have vampires ruling the world or coming into power in any way. The leeches needed to die. Thats why she was making her current potion. She had used blood from both her sons and that of a captive vampire she'd managed to wring in using her considerable power.

She had a shifter too. She had almost lost Wyatt, her dear eldest son, to the love of a shifter some time ago, but that was over, and she was keeping him as far as she could manage away from this shifter. It was female and predatory in nature, likely a wolf from the looks of her. She would attract Wyatt. She didn't dare let another shifter steal her son away. She stirred the cauldron and addressed her sons, who were watching carefully. The vampire was to be her first test subject for the virus in the cauldron. "Dear boys, I thank you for your contribution, without it, I couldn't make this potion, no this virus." She grinned. The potion hissed and bubbled in the cauldron. "Bloodrain will take care of the leeches. They won't take our world from us. I am glad you realize this isn't genocide. Merely pest control. I'm killing leeches. There is no harm in that."

Wyatt cleared his throat and addressed his mother. "Why must you make it a virus? Can't you just make something that makes them just die, and quickly? Why give the Crone of Daybreak time to find a cure? You know she'll look. She dislikes them, but she helps anyone, even leeches."

Chris nodded. "Wyatt is right. Elspeth will look for a cure. She's powerful. My time spent with her, it wasn't entirely wasted. She is very old and nearing the end of her life, and the little witch she is training as her successor will be just as powerful. Right now, she is nothing more than a ditzy blonde (no offense, brother dear), but she will come into her power, and whether it is her or the old lady in control of Daybreak by the time your Bloodrain takes hold, a cure will be found."

Melania glared at them both. They had voiced concerns she herself had. The virus didn't kill fast enough. There was no way to make it kill faster. She would have to simply rely on the Crone of Daybreak not being able to find a cure.

"My sons, this is blood magic. The old woman has never had truck with it. By the time she or the young witch have found what spell I used to create the virus, it will be too late. The leeches will be dead. All of them. This world belongs to us. To the witches. Once the leeches are gone, the shifters are next. I already have a virus created for them. Made from the blood of Wyatt's shifter. Her blood was particularly powerful. It will destroy them all. The shifters will die just as the leeches are going to."

Melania grinned a fierce, wicked grin. She gestured to a cauldron near the one made for vampires. This one wasn't blood colored like the one in the vampire cauldron. This one was a gleaming blue.

"Bloodrain version two point oh. Made for shifters. I'll have to come up with a better name of course, but there it is. We will rule the world soon."

Chris swallowed. She hadn't really needed his blood for this, which was why he gave it so readily. He knew what she was up to, and he had read this spell himself, on her desk, when she was asleep. Wyatt had seen him padding down the hallway, but hadn't got up and followed him, so his brother likely assumed he was getting up to piss or something. Chris had memorized everything needed for the spell, the shifter and vampire versions.

As soon as he was able, he was going to run away again and get this information to Mistress Harman. He couldn't let this come to pass. The shifters and vampires would fall to illness within days of this virus being released into the air. He honestly agreed with his mother that the vampires deserved to die. They were disgusting leeches, all of them. Still...he remembered Ty, Mistress Harman's vampire friend, and Ty had been friendly and helpful to him. He couldn't let Ty suffer the pain of this virus. Likely, he would be one of the last to succumb, being so powerful and an ancient one. That at least gave Chris hope. A clinking sound drew him out of his inner monologue.

Melania had begun bottling the contents of the vampire virus into small bottles, its glittering red contents gleaming in the sunlight. A glitter of death.

+ Magic was thick in the air when Crone Harman visited the Seer. The solstice always brought wild, untamed magic out of nature and made big rituals and spells easier to manipulate. Something told her that the Dark Coven was up to no good this night, but there was little she could do but wait and find out what that was, and then clean up the mess after. Something that was becoming more and more frequent lately. Truly that Halliwell woman had lost her marbles, what few she'd had originally. Elspeth was just about to get ready to leave the Seer in peace when the girl in question stiffened suddenly, her white eyes glowing an eerie blue as her teacup fell to the carpet she rasped out a single prophetic sentence.

"_The Lost King is found and Lost no more."_

_Several weeks later…_  
Passing back into the US through customs at San Luis Rio Colorado was nowhere near as easy as leaving, but her paperwork was in order and she wasn't bringing anything back…well, nothing that customs was ever going to find. Truthfully she'd rather have stayed right where she was in the jungle, honing her new skills after her little…incident…her mind wandered briefly but before it could go far her paperwork was being handed back and she was being let in. Something was pulling at her soul, calling her back to Vegas again. _It'd better not be that old hag using her voodoo on me for some inane reason_…

Travel on the roads was quiet, quiet enough, especially closer to the city outskirts that it was truly beginning to creep Lena out. The hair on the back of her neck had been standing on end for the last several miles and her scalp had begun to itch. Not in a 'you've-got-parasites' way but rather a 'there's-something-supernaturally-creepy-going-on'. Finally she crested the last hill before the city and stopped her bike on the side of the road, listening to the quiet putter of the engine as she surveyed the city through her goggles. It _looked_ normal enough, or about as normal as Vegas could get, it _sounded_ normal but there was something…she took a breath as a breeze ruffled her hair and stiffened. There was thick magic on the wind. Death magic.

She closed her eyes and took a deeper breath trying to get a fix on the magic. All she could get was blood, and, strangely enough, wolf. She stayed a while longer, puzzling it out. Nothing had been in the mainstream media, so the humans had little to no idea of what was going on which meant it was an internal Night World matter. Never mind what the elders said Lena never truly believed that they would reveal themselves to the world. Break from the rest of the Night World? Certainly, but full disclosure?

Never happen, but whatever this was may just push them to do it to avoid extinction…if it was what she thought and dark witches were trying to take over by using death magic on shifters and…probably leeches. She frowned; genocide always left a bad taste in her mouth. Briefly she wondered if the Dark Coven had been behind people like Hitler, then decided it didn't really matter. Lena settled back onto her bike and rode into town something fishy was going on, that much was certain, what exactly she wasn't too sure about.

A week after Lena got back into Vegas Elspeth sighed as she analysed the blood of yet another shifter corpse. Something was killing off vampires too, but most of their bodies were too far gone to autopsy with any great efficiency. It seemed to be some sort of death magic related disease…_no,_ she corrected herself _not a disease, a virus. But how would that madwoman have distributed it so quickly? Perhaps it is contagious…which would be very bad; there's been little quarantine, even after this crisis found the light of day, and none before. No one knows what the incubation period is…_ her thoughts trailed off when she realised she wasn't alone in the room. She looked up, as thunder rumbled outside and saw a face she wasn't sure to feel about.

Elated, or saddened, one or the other. "Good evening Lena dear. What brings you to my abode this night?"

Something unreadable flickered across the girl's face before she spoke. "I have a headache." Elspeth blinked, not understanding what that particular non-sequitur came from. Lena seemed to understand, and spoke to her as if she was a particularly slow or recalcitrant child. "What kind of _shifter_ even _gets_ a headache? Far less sick with 'flu for a week?"

_That_ revelation made Elspeth go weak at the knees.

"You…you survived the bloodrain virus?" she spluttered for a few moments, her mind unable to process until… "Of course, one of the key ingredients in the Bloodrain potion is DNA from the intended victim's race, most often this is obtained through a blood sample. The more powerful the DNA sample the better it kills, but if a victim was more powerful than the donor then…" Elspeth gasped as the implications hit her.

Unthinking she threw a diagnostics spell at Lena, only to have it dodged and find herself pinned to a wall with what looked like a bone knife, a very sharp bone knife, held to her jugular. Lena herself was snarling and a strange magic was filling the room. Magic that was wilder, and more powerful than anything Elspeth had ever felt in her long life. Though there was no heat. As she looked at Lena she saw a faint electric blue outline around the girl's figure. Apparently she'd stepped out of line. Before she could apologise Lena started her interrogation.

"What is this 'bloodrain' you speak of? Is this the death magic in the air I can smell?"

_She can sense…smell…the magic? Incredible…Are you the child of the lost Kings Lena?_ "More than likely. The virus has killed all it's come into contact with, we've been trying to find a cure, or even a counter with the information our spy in the Midnight Coven got to us, but you…your body was able to fight it off naturally, using and propagating your blood plasma we could end this cursed virus before your kind are extinct…I'm sorry for throwing that diagnostic spell at you without warning child but this has excited me so much." Elspeth barely noticed in her babbling that Lena had let her down and somehow vanished the knife again.

"Assuming I agree to…" she sneered "_help_, what do I get out of this?"

Elspeth considered for a minute, she simply didn't know the bloodthirsty girl (and wasn't it strange using that description in reference to anything not a vampire…) well enough to make an offer. "What do you want Lena?"

"Give me the name of the bitch that brewed that concoction to kill me."

_An eye, for an eye…_ Elspeth realised. "Very well, the woman's name is…"

Minutes later, after making several solemn, and magical, vows about the use of Lena's donated blood Elspeth wondered if she'd done the right thing. There was no doubt in her mind that Lena was out for Melania's blood, and the little part-blood may just be able to kill the evil madwoman but there was the possibility that it would spark off a war between witches and shifters…though to the shifters, it was Melania who had started the war with the Bloodrain…

Sam sighed as he leaned on the Impala's steering wheel. Stakeouts where downright boring. Especially when your partner/brother ditched you for a date with a bird.

_Splat._ Sam jerked awake again. What was that?

_Splatsplat…splat._ Stakeouts in the rain were even worse. At least Dean had let him use the Impala this time. He eyed the street as his mind wandered over the last few weeks…well, couple of months now actually. Once Lena had skipped the country Ruby had started climbing the walls. When the deadline for that 'something big' came and went without a whisper of…well…_anything_ she'd started chewing her nails. Currently Ruby had no fingernails left and was contemplating taking up smoking to calm her nerves.

Making things worse was the mysterious rash of disappearances and deaths that started in Vegas, then began to radiate outwards. As he glanced upwards again he saw the grinning face of Tylendil and shuddered, until he realised that Ty wasn't looking at him but rather…a small girl with a familiar-looking tattoo. He gasped as he realised Lena was back in Vegas. His instincts told him the shit was now primed to hit the fan.


	6. Chapter 6

_**AN: **The last pre-written chapter. All others will be new and by me alone, unless the other two writes come back._

_**Prophecy – Chapter 6**_

* Dizziness. Weakness. What had happened? Tylendil groaned. Had he been caught out in the sun too long only to be found by that Sam person? No, he was just here, in his own home. It had felt like he'd been sick for awhile, ill, almost as if he'd had what humans called the flu. He'd never been human, and thus had never been ill, so this was a new and unpleasant feeling for him. Whatever it was, it was over now. He was recovering.

Some...virus. He picked up a nearby cellphone, tempted to phone the Dark Coven and see if they had anything to do with this. They HATED vampires, but he was very powerful and very influential. They might answer. Unless he got their Crone, Melania. She so wanted to be immortal. She didn't realize that immortality had its downsides. Vampires couldn't turn others, even if Melania had wanted to be turned. The Crone of the Dark Coven was on her own in her search for immortality. He disliked that Coven anyway. He tried to be neutral, but he'd found himself siding more and more with the Daybreakers.

He dialed Elspeth's number. To his disappointment, Thea picked up. "HELLO! CRONE'S MAGICAL SUPPLY HOUSE FOR ALL YOUR MAGICAL AND SPELL NEEDS!"

He had forgotten that Elspeth normally left that perky little girl in charge while she was gone elsewhere. It was nearing full dark, the sun sinking below the horizon, and Ty felt his powers strengthening. He'd no idea how long he had been ill. Or what had happened. Just that he had several days worth of missing time. He'd been blacked out for 4 days before waking up and recovering. He'd checked the calendar on his cellphone. What had caused this? He'd wanted to talk to Elspeth. He hung up on Thea, not even saying anything. Let her be confused, which was normal for her anyway.

He groaned again as he slid to the edge of the bed, shaking his head. Having been out for days, he was deathly hungry. He had no choice but to feed on one of his servants again. Jaime, a witch who claimed he'd kept watch over him while he was ill, willingly offered his blood. Ty drank hungrily, lost in the bloodlust, but still able to prevent himself from taking too much. Jaime was a witch, and he would provide potent blood, which was what the vampire needed now more than anything. Jaime dabbed slightly at the puncture wounds on his neck, but said nothing. He knew his master and his needs, and was willing to provide. Despite this, Jaime was still dizzy. Ty had taken more than he'd meant to.

"I'm sorry, Jaime. I hadn't fed in days...normally I have to at least once a day. I promise you'll be paid triple for this. Just...take the day off. Lie down. You can use my bed." He gestured for the young witch to lay down. The witch was immune to his mind control, but was too dizzy to argue. He lay down on Ty's soft mattress and fell asleep.

Once again at full power, from the darkness and the witch blood in his veins, he decided to see if Lena had returned. He headed to the casino, driving himself this time instead of using a limo and a driver. He wanted to be discreet and his normal mode of travel was far from it. He had a black BMW with violet underlights that he loved to drive when he had to. He parked outside the casino, his expensive car drawing a few envious looks from other patrons, and entered.

He grinned. Lena. She HAD returned. And of all places, she had returned here. He caught a small whiff of the bird shifter somewhere nearby. He spotted her at a table, not working, but just drinking something and giggling and blushing while that Dean man was making lewd comments toward her. Ty snorted. Dean really got around. Thea, and now the bird? Geez. Ty hadn't had a woman in hundreds of years. No one had interested him. Until now. Until Lena. He headed toward her very recognizable form.

In a gleaming '67 Impala, Sam watched Ty approach Lena, apparently to just talk to her. His attention was drawn from the scene by a soft voice coming from the backseat.

"Sam Winchester. You are special, you know?" It was an old woman's voice. Sam turned to face her. A VERY old woman. The same old woman that..from the shop. She looked to be over one hundred! She smiled, wrinkles creasing her face. "You know me. I am Elspeth Harman. I am a witch. And so are you. That is why I couldn't control your mind fully that day I saw you at the shop. You have extremely strong psychic gifts, child. And don't tell me you're not a child. To me, anyone younger than me is a child." The old woman grinned, she was missing teeth he noticed.

Sam laughed at her proclamation of him being a psychic and a witch. "You lie, old lady. Yes, I know you supernatural people exist, but I'm not one of you. I've never had 'magical powers'." He snorted and laughed at the last part of what he'd said. "Sure I might sometimes dream things that...happen later on, but everyone has true-dreams sometimes, right? I've read about it in books. Its not all uncommon."

Elspeth shook her head sadly. "True-dreams are psychic powers finding a way to manifest themselves. You are a witch, Sam Winchester. You brother is not, and doesn't even have a hint of magic about him, unless you consider charming young women to be a power." Elspeth glanced at Dean, who was unabashedly staring at Kerowyn's breasts in the casino. "I have appeared to you here to make you an offer. I can train you in your powers. You are VERY powerful. If you weren't, I wouldn't have bothered. If you weren't, you wouldn't feel things from people. Don't lie to me and say you haven't felt things from certain people sometimes, even your own brother's feelings."

Elspeth had hit a mark with Sam. He had felt things from people, and objects, but he'd passed it off for so long as instinct and government training. He'd never imagined anything like magic was real, much less that he HAD it. That he was POWERFUL with it. It was...tempting. But... "I'm sorry, old lady. I don't want to be a witch. I just want to do my job and get the fuck out of here."

The old woman gave a sad sigh. "I wish I could let you. I won't force you to come with me. But the older you get, the more powerful you'll get. You won't be able to control your psychic powers and your magic unless you are trained in it. I am the Crone of Circle Daybreak. A Coven of good witches. There is another Coven...the Dark Coven. Circle Midnight. I come to you before she comes to you. She wouldn't offer or ask politely. She would force you to work for her. She would force your powers from you. She is here, in Vegas. Plotting, dark and evil things. I want your help. With the help of another powerful witch, we could find out where she is, what this bloodrain is."

At Sam's confused look, she explained. "Bloodrain is a potent concoction meant to kill vampires and shapeshifters in a very slow, painful way. I believe I have found a cure without using death magic like the Crone of Midnight thought I would have to. But we need to work fast."

Sam was focusing his full attention on the old lady now. "Genocide. She wants to kill everything but witches, doesn't she?"

Elspeth nodded. "Yes. That is why we need to act, and soon. Before she makes a version for humans. It spreads through the air. She gives it to one victim and it just spreads from there, passing through breathing, blood, anything. All over the world, people are dying. That is, vampires and shifters are dying because of her. When she makes one for humans...you'll survive because you're not human. But your brother won't. I hate bribing people or saying things like this, but I must tell you the truth. If we don't stop Melania before she makes a virus for humans, your brother will die in agony, coughing up his own lungs and organs, being tortured even as he dies. He will die, and you won't be able to do anything to stop it."

Sam hung his head in his hands. No. No way. He wouldn't let Dean die, even if did mean becoming a...a...witch. He glanced again at his grinning brother, now tickling Kerowyn, both of them grinning and laughing. Dean would never laugh again if this wicked Dark Coven did what Elspeth said they were going to do. "Fine, old woman. What do you want me to do first?"

+ Elsepth smiled and was about to reply when the sound of hardened leather impacting on something soft reached Sam's ears, along with an "oh, my" from Elspeth, who was now looking out of the windscreen to something on the street. Sam whipped around in time to see Lena remove her boot from Tylendil's groin.

He also felt violently ill when he noticed that it appeared that Tylendil's feet had lifted off the footpath during Lena's attack. "That _had_ to hurt." He, and practically everyone in the vicinity, watched as Tylendil crumpled to the ground in a foetal position. Discussing the incident later with Dean, both agreed that the kick to his head, rendering him unconscious was perhaps the kindest thing Lena could do in the circumstances, regardless of if it was actually meant to be a kindness or not.

"A shame that Tylendil's lust got the better of him. Had he been paying attention I very much doubt he would have approached her."

Sam looked back at the old woman sitting in the Impala's backseat. "Why is that?"

"Simply put, Lena is wild. All the shifters are, but the predatory ones are even more so than others, but Lena...Lena makes even other predators look tame, even before she went on her little holiday. I hear she went back to South America, her home...I also believe that something happened to her down there. What I do not know for certain, but her power...it is wilder, and more potent than anything I have ever encountered before in my life, and I have lived a very long time my child, a very long time. You have the potential to come close to her, but I doubt there are many, if any that could ever truly rival her. No doubt she has weaknesses, aside from the usual ones, but she is canny enough to keep that information to herself."

"What do you mean by 'usual weaknesses'?"

Elspeth ave Sam a sharp look, "I understand you have spoken to Tylendil about the Night World? Did he not speak of the other races also?" Sam shook his head. "Hmmm, well Lena will no doubt not like me spreading this about, but it _is_ common knowledge after all. Lena is a shapeshifter, they have a name for their race in their own language, but I cannot do it justice with my accent, and all shifters are horrendously allergic to silver, it is deadly to them in a similar way that Arsenic is poisonous to us and humans. Admittedly, other than that they are quite durable."

"Wait a minute, I thought werewolves were susceptible to silver?"

Elspeth raised a delicate eyebrow, "And what do you suppose a werewolf _is_ dear boy, if not a shapeshifter? If you can do it without offending her, and I warn you shifters as a whole are terribly proud, she would make a very good ally for you and your...superiors, but do not entrap her into any organisations, something she said in the past makes me doubt she would take to that all that well."

The sound of Dean's laughter distracted Sam for a moment as he turned to look at the street before him. Tylendil was hobbling away...and what he wouldn't have given to have seen the look on the vampire's face when Lena kicked him in the balls! Dean was laughing with the bird-girl and Lena was nowhere to be seen. No doubt she had vanished soon after knocking Tylendil out.

Later back at the motel, Sam and Dean were reporting in to Ruby.

"So let me get this straight, dude, the old lady got into and _out of_ my baby without you noticing at all? The hell did she do? Teleport? Go all Obi-wan on you or something?"

"Teleport, I'm sure of it." Dean looked ready to explode at the thought of anyone using _magic_, of all things in his car. Luckily Ruby headed off his rant.

"Interesting. And you say she seemed unconcerned about you spreading knowledge of this...what did she call it...'Night World' to me?" on speaker phone Ruby's voice sounded unbelievably girly, but neither Winchester was silly enough to tell her that.

Sam thought for a moment "didn't seems that way, if anything she expected it. Even went so far as to give me advice on how to approach Lena."

"Really? What did she say?"

"Dude, who, or what is a Lena?"

Sam sighed and began to explain, again, for his man-whore brother. This was turning into a long night.

Lena scowled as she walked quickly through the streets of Vegas. Her recon into the Halliwell bitch had on one hand gone well, on the other it also went rather crappily. Though in all truthfulness she should have expected for the woman to have Put her heart somewhere for safe-keeping. Knowing her luck, it was in a safely-deposit box in Switzerland somewhere.

While that wouldn't protect her from a beheading, that would mean getting up close and personal, rather than using a more distant method. Like, say, a sniper rifle. She paused and looked through a darkened shop window, keeping an eye on the witch that was currently tailing her. She was probably more than powerful enough to get in and take the bitch, even through all the security, but since her little...incident in the jungle her magic had been difficult to control.

Not that it was particularly easy before, but it was different now, and that made all the difference to her once near-perfect control. Basically, it meant she now had practically none. Actually that explained why that sleazy leech had tried to come on to her earlier, those things were attracted to power were they not? She glanced again at the other reflection in the window. Witches were too no doubt. Maybe she could beat up someone else too. That would help her mood.

"Alright boys, I want you to make contact with this Lena, if you can. Try to get her on a retainer or something, like a backup we can call in for the big jobs, but not strictly on the payroll. Do you think that would take care of the control issues the old woman was talking about Sam?"

Sam thought about it. "Maybe, I don't know Ruby, I've never even spoken to this girl before, I know nothing about her, other than her name and she can kick arse... Although... Ruby, permission to speak to Tylendil again tonight, over the phone? Something tells me he'll know more about Lena than anyone else, excepting Lena herself. Then we can make a better informed decision."

"Dude, you sure he's gonna want to talk about her? I mean, she totally kicked him in the balls, in public! I know I wouldn't want to talk about her."

Sam looked at Dean, "I'm not sure why, but something tells me that Lena kicking him in the balls like that has probably just made him obsess over her, if he wasn't already."

"One of your hunches Sam?"

"Yes ma'am."

"...Very well, you have my permission for a phone call. Nothing more. Be careful you two, We can't afford to loose you."

* After the...unpleasant...incident with Lena, Tylendil had managed to limp his way back to his vehicle and drive home. Thanks to his quick healing powers, the pain was fading faster than it would have normally. He sighed and flipped the stations on the radio. He didn't have one of those strange satellite radios installed in his very expensive car. He actually preferred the old radios. Hmm. News. The vampire's ears caught something of interest on one of the news radio stations and he listened as he drove home. Attacks. People dropping dead in the street of some unknown virus. A possible pandemic.

That...bitch. The Dark Coven witch was behind this, he knew. It would be just like her, and it would explain why he'd been ill for so long and why he hadn't heard from any other vampires. They were all still ill or possibly dead or dying. Many thought he would likely be embarrassed or too upset to want to think about Lena after what she'd done to him in public, no less! However, she had returned from...wherever she had been...as more. So much more. The vampire could practically taste it on his tongue. Oh, gods, he wondered what her lips, her blood, would taste like now?

The vampire shook himself. What a stupid thing to think right now! Even as he'd been knocked out, he couldn't help but overhear the old Harman crone talking to one of the men in the black Impala. Likely, he was going to hear from one of them sooner or later, again. He didn't like them, and they didn't like him. He scared them. Ty was quite happy with that.

The more frightened a person is, the more information they reveal...Ty bit his lips, drawing a bit of blood with his needle-sharp fangs. He sucked at it. His own blood was like all vampire blood, tasteless to him and no nutrition in it at all. Perhaps he could frighten the Halliwell witch into giving up some information on what had caused this virus. If that is indeed what it was...

Ty pulled near the gates to his manor and waited as the guards unlocked them allowed him entry. He parked his car near the entrance to his home and a valet drove it away, to be parked in one of the garages. He didn't know or care which. He never locked his doors to his home. For someone like Ty, that was pointless. Anyone tried to rob him, well...they wouldn't make it out alive. He limped into the living room, still wincing over the pain Lena had caused him. He removed his cell phone from his jacket and again tried to call Elspeth, hoping desperately that she was back at the shop. The phone rang at least five times before there was an answer.

"Hello, Tylendil. It is a bit late to be calling...well, not for you, perhaps...what can I do for you?" The voice was, thankfully, Elspeth's. Ty let out a ragged sigh of relief.

"Mistress Harman, I've heard...strange things, and I'm sure you have as well...it seems there is some sort of virus that targets only shapeshifters and vampires, unless some of the Circles were also affected?" Elspeth's soft breaths could be heard from the other end of the line before she spoke.

"No, Master Tylendil, nothing at all has affected any witches. Not even...human witches. That is, those who do not know the power they possess. You've met one." Elspeth seemed to smile from the other end of the phone line. "But yes, I have indeed heard and witnessed, such things. One who is staying with us, a shifter named Kerowyn, the dragon shifter that you have attempted to help a few times, became ill, but recovered a few weeks after, much like yourself. She was ill in bed for a very long time. We thought she might not make it. Perhaps it is the dragon blood in her that kept her alive. Either way, yes, I know what you speak of. And I know who is responsible. I will...attempt to deal with this myself."

A click from the phone. Elspeth had hung up on him. She did not like vampires, but Ty had thought she liked him enough to at least talk to him longer than that. Perhaps this virus was really causing her a lot of stress...a beeping from his cellphone caused him to once again pick it up.

"Tylendil." His answer was brief and to the point. He had no need for greetings.

A cough sounded from the other end, then someone clearing their throat. Finally, someone spoke. "Uh, this is, uh Sam. You know, the guy who-"

Ty cut him off quickly, having no time for pleasantries. "I know who you are. What do you want?"

The man, Sam, coughed again. "Well, uh, see, our boss, she wants to...know more. About the Night World. And Lena. She wants to, I don't know, really, like, put her on retainer or something..."

Tylendil snorted derisively. "Good luck with that. Good luck getting her to agree to anything. She is far more wild than she was before she left town, believe me." Ty subconsciously rubbed his aching crotch. "Why would your boss WANT her on any job?"

Sam seemed agitated. "Ruby is...she's a little...she can get scary when she wants to. She KNOWS things like you are out there. And she wants, well, things, for the bigger jobs. Jobs that us normal humans," here, Sam seemed a bit nervous, "can't handle."

Ty took exception to being called a 'thing' but said nothing about it. "I can and will give you all the information I have, which is very little, I'm afraid. After that...unpleasantness tonight, I didn't get another chance to even go near the woman. But I can tell you she is definitely...changed. Her blood smells far more delicious than it ever has...he skin practically seeps power...and she is strong, by the gods. When she kicked me, she nearly lifted me off the ground. Something happened to her while she was away, and I don't know what or why or how. But whatever it was, she's twice what she was before." Ty once again rubbed his aching balls.

Sam found that spectacularly unhelpful. "Thanks...that's...not helpful at all, really, but thanks anyway. Uhm, you don't mind if we call you if we need information on other things, do you?"

Ty rubbed his head and glanced out the window. Sunrise was coming soon. He'd have to sleep. Best to end this conversation with Sam quickly. "No. However, this works both ways. You find out anything on Lena yourself, you inform me. I find out anything, I inform you. Are we clear?"

Sam nodded, only to realize he was on the phone and Ty couldn't hear his head shake. "Yeah. Clear. Thanks. Most vampires aren't usually so cooperative."

"I'm not being cooperative for you. I'm being cooperative for Lena. I want to know about her as much as you do. Goodday, Sam Winchester." Ty hung up and headed upstairs to go to bed.

+ It was some ungodly hour of the morning that the knocking on their motel door started up. After being up for pretty much the entire night neither of the Winchester brothers was very happy at having their rest disturbed. Dean in particular. He wrenched the door open with a snarled "_What?!_" at the man on the other side. Not even Dean's morning temper could shake the man on the other side though. Dean blinked, rubbed his eyes, and blinked again. Nope, the man in the old-fashioned tailed butler suit was still there, still holding the silver platter with a manila folder on it.

The Butler (capital B and all) presented the platter to Dean with a flourish. "The master requested that this file be delivered to the Misters Winchester." He waited until Dean took the folder before he slipped the platter under his arm, clicked his heels together with a bow and then about-faced with military precision and leaving Dean standing in the doorway, gobsmacked and completely speechless. Sam took the opportunity to take a picture of Dean's expression on his phone. After all, it wasn't often Dean was caught off-guard like that.

Sam looked at the folder, "is that the information on Lena Tylendil promised."  
Sleep was put off a while longer.

Lena walked up to the apartment door and rapped on it sharply. The shifter who answered it was...huge, he towered over her, but she didn't pause, brushing past and marching into the living area, coming to a stop before the oldest shifter she'd ever seen. He was probably actually the oldest in the world now, thanks to the Coven of Darkness. Neither said anything and the other two shifters watched on in terse silence as Lena and the Elder known as Samuel stared (or rather, glared, in Lena's case) and the tension in the room escalated. After several minutes it was, strangely enough, the blind Elder who broke their staring contest, speaking to his retainers.

"Please leave us."

Hours later Lena exited the apartment once more. There had been much said, and just as much left unsaid. Most of the unsaid portions were Lena's contribution. _So, what's left of the shifter leadership wants us to ally with the human governments in secret. A shame the worldwide population has been decimated. _Though she still held no love for her own kind she was, slowly, learning to tolerate those who had nothing to do with her childhood.

Samuel had met with several high-ups in the human government, including the President and hashed out a treaty that was far fairer than anything the Council had ever offered. Which meant that Shifters were now something of an open secret, the kind that everybody hears about but all but the best connected believed to be nothing more than rumour. He'd also given her a list of 'bump-in-the-night' critters that had been tracked down that needed to be 'taken care of'.

Although, as a goodwill gesture to the humans she'd have to do it under observation of a team of 'Supernatural' specialists she'd be teamed with. Her nose wrinkled in distaste as she mounted her bike again _working with, and training humans. At the very least they may prove amusing._

Sam and Dean were jolted out of sleep once more by one of their phones ringing. Turned out to be a thoroughly upset Ruby calling. Apparently the government has negotiated a contract with a group of supernatural beings, _without_ consulting her on any of it. Needless to say she was not happy about the situation.

With her next sentence the Winchesters weren't happy either. "You're being reassigned."

"What?!" "The _hell_ you say!"

"Shut up, both of you! None of us have any say in this matter. The Brass say that this is the perfect opportunity for you to learn more about Supernatural _fact_, as strange as that concept is to talk about, from someone who lives and breathes the Supernatural."

Sam spoke up before the ticked off Dean could open his mouth. "That's all well and good Ruby, but what about the girl, Lena?"

Ruby heaved a sigh over the phone. "I've been ordered that since the girl's essentially a model citizen our surveillance is illegal now, because of that treaty. Oh, and apparently your Supernatural contact will be arriving soon. I've no idea who it's supposed to be, except that she hunts...'things' for a living and has been told to train you two up in hunting those things as well, to the best of your abilities."  
A sharp rap on the door interrupted them.

"That's probably her now. Good luck boys." Before either one could say anything Ruby hung up on them. Sam shrugged and put the phone away as Dean went to answer to door, only to be left speechless for the second time that day. This time Sam didn't blame him, because standing on their doorstep with a satchel slung across her body in all her creepy glory was none other than the self-same girl they'd just been discussing. Lena simply sized both of them up and muttered something about having her work cut out for her.

* Melania was pissed. Pissed beyond belief. Failed. FAILED! How had it failed? Sure, some vampires and shifters had dropped dead, but for the most part, the more powerful ones had either recovered to a slightly more weakened state, or were still alive and fighting the virus. She knew for a fact that one of the elder vampires had recovered completely after having been ill for quite some time. She wasn't sure about shifters, since few of them ever had contact with her coven.

The elder vampire in question, Tylendil, had called her on a supposedly secure line and bitched her out for quite some time, threatening to find her and ring her neck or bite it, she wasn't sure even now what he said. The threats of leeches meant nothing to incredibly powerful witches. Melania had ignored Tylendil, except for the part where he had told her that her plan had mostly failed. This only meant she would have to work on a harder batch. A batch of virus so powerful even Tylendil wouldn't be able to fight it off. Not even one Elspeth, the old hag, could cure. She was sure Elspeth was behind managing to keep the weaker shifters alive. Elspeth likely didn't care about vampires either, much like Melania, and according to Tylendil, the vampire population was greatly decimated.

This gave Melania some delight. There were very few leeches left where her virus had hit home. Only the oldest and strongest had survived. Vampires were weaker than shifters, this proved. Most shifters had survived and fought it, while most vampires had just up and died (again). She thought of Wyatt's old shifter girlfriend and how powerful she had been.

Only Wyatt knew where the girl was, and he wasn't exactly talking. He preferred to never speak of it again, at least in his words. Chris had run off for a bit, but that didn't concern the dark coven leader. Her youngest son often was gone, likely spying on Elspeth for her. At first, she had thought the healer-witch a detriment to the family, but he had come in handy. With his gift of healing, Chris was readily accepted by Circle Daybreak and Elspeth and provided a ready-made spy for Melania.

The leader of Circle Midnight walked through the rows of cages beneath her large manor. It was well-hidden from all but her most trusted of servants and her sons. Chris and Wyatt knew of the labs existence and helped as much as they could. Wyatt was out getting a new specimen at the moment and Chris was spying. Melania ran her hands over some bullet-and-shifter-proof glass that made up the cage holding one of her current specimens.

A cat shifter. More specifically, a lion shifter. A powerful shifter. One that had survived direct injections of the virus with nothing more than vomiting and diarrhea accompanied by bouts of feverish coughing. The witch drew a dark red rune in the air before her. The rune shimmered with ruby light before vanishing. Melania felt the thrum in the air around her that made up the shield charm. She wasn't about to enter a shifter's cell without a protection spell. The witch waved a hand, undoing the lock on the door, which could only be removed with magic. There was no keyhole.

The shifter roared at her in cat-like rage and pounced. It was in half-and-half shape and had claws bigger than Melania's hand. However, the lion-person bounced off the powerful shield spell cast by the leader of Circle Midnight and fell to the floor with a yowl of pain and anger. The witch knelt down, smiling at the weakened shifter.

"Come now, dear kitty. I merely come for a blood sample. No more virus injections for tonight, anyway." The witch smiled and gestured to a lab assistant that had accompanied her. He too was protected by the same shield charm and the cat bounced off his shield just as easily. He was a witch, too, but not near as powerful as his mistress.

"Please, kitty, if you don't calm down, it only hurts worse!" Melania waved a hand. The cat's eyes glazed over and an unnatural calm settled over it. Most shifters had no protection at all against spells. She hadn't cast a sleeping spell. She wanted the beast to be aware of his surroundings. The lab assistant recognized the spell, and approached the shifter with a syringe in hand. The cat shifter's eyes were wide and fearful beneath the magic-induced calm as the needle pierced his skin and drew blood. The blood was reddish black. Contaminated with the virus, of course. Melania smiled. She gestured to the assistant and they headed back to the main lab, her spell casting room as well.

Once back in the chamber, Melania took the shifter's blood and poured it into a basin. A scrying basin. The blood bubbled. She whispered her desires to the basin of virus-contaminated blood. _Find the __reason the weak shifters still live. Find a way to kill the shifters._ Melania's whispered desire flew on the wind into the night. The spell would seek out those who had been contaminated with the virus and recovered fully. There was a chance they would be able to sense the magic in the air, but there was nothing they could do to prevent the scrying from getting back to her.

***

Back in his manor, Tylendil's butler had returned from delivering information to the Winchester boys. He'd kept his end of the bargain. Now, if they would keep theirs. He sipped a glass of cold red wine. Contrary to popular belief, vampires could drink things other than blood, they just couldn't eat solid foods. Their bodies weren't made for it and it would make them rather deathly ill. The vampire was watching TV. Specifically, the late night news.

Things were getting bad. People pretty much knew about the supernatural. Or at least suspected as much. Nearly half of his race was dead due to that Midnight bitch's virus. This left him little choice but to find a way to kill her. He had threatened to kill her in his phone call to her, but even he knew that if a witch didn't want to be found, no one would find them. Witches were, at the moment, the most powerful supernatural race ever. Despite being as mortal as humans, their insane magical abilities made up for their short lives. Elspeth could send him flying across the room with a glance.

Vampires weren't used to being considered a "weak" race, but with witches on top as always and shifters slowly creeping past vampires in power, he was sure he would have to deal with being the butt-monkey of both races. Especially now that his race consisted of, well, very little individuals indeed. The vampire council had even suffered losses.

For that he really didn't care. He hated those assholes. He knew a few nice vampires. Like Nadja Devanshi, for instance. She was beautiful and had the voice of an angel. Nadja hadn't died, but she was very ill and suffering. Only the care by her witch servants kept her alive. He'd made it a point to call Nadja recently. Elspeth hadn't recontacted him in regards to finding a cure to the vampire version of the virus. He grimaced as he realized she likely didn't care if his race were murdered to the brink of extinction.

Ty drained the rest of his red wine. He'd already fed this evening, so there was nothing for him to do now except wait for the Winchester brothers to call him with any information. The vampire sighed and leaned back on his couch, staring at the ceiling.

+ The first thing Lena did on entering the motel room was search for any wards or other safety measures.

There were none.

She resisted the urge to slowly and methodically bash her head against the nearest wall and kicked the door shut with her foot as she crossed the room to dump her duffel onto one of the rumpled beds. Next she observed the two humans..._no, that one is not human. _A subtle, clumsy wisp of magic reached across the room to her. Lena's eyes narrowed on the boy, Sam, from what she recalled. So, an untrained, but clearly powerful witch, if he was unconsciously using his power to try and size her up. Still, even with the unconscious magic scan they came up wanting. There was nothing she could see or sense that even hinted towards some sort of supernatural protection of any kind.

Eventually, she couldn't keep her opinion to herself any longer.

"Don't either of you two know _anything_ about the so-called 'Supernatural'?" This, naturally, gained her nothing but offended spluttering denial of their lack of education.

Lena sighed as she rummaged through her bag, finding a large bag of rock salt.

"Lesson Number One: Salt is your new best friend..."

Hours (and many offended sounds from Dean) later Lena had barely started to cover what the two would need to know. Hell it had taken over an hour just to cover why rock salt was so wonderful to her satisfaction, as well as salting the room, and teaching them how to make salt cartridges for shotguns and what critters it was best used on. She was about to start in on the next 'pure' substance, the only one she detested, when there was a shiver in the air. Lena noticed that Sam appeared to notice the tainted magic on the wind. Lena took a deep breath, sorting through the scents in the room as a wisp of copper reached her sensitive nose. At Lena's scowl Sam spoke up.

"What _is_ that?"

Apparently he was getting over his nervousness of her. "Blood magic. Tainted, blood magic." Lena's eyes closed as she tried to reach out. With her magic so messed up recently it was much harder than it should have been. "Feels like...scrying magic." Probably searching for her if the way it was now homing in on her was any indication.

"Can't you stop it?"

"No. The passive magic in the salt we protected the room with will...muddle the spell enough to make life annoying for the bitch, but nothing more. More than likely Dean will be most protected. Sam will probably show up as a curiosity, though faint. I, on the other hand, my features and magical signature will be muddled, but..." Lena trailed off as she felt the spell latch onto her as best it could through the protections.

It was...creepy, Sam decided, seeing the tainted heat mirage that suddenly appeared in front of the openings to the room, openings that had previously been 'salted' as Lena termed it. Quickly all the...taint...coalesced into one spot closest to where Lena had been sitting. Lena herself stood and walked over to it, careful not to disturb the salt, and began to speak directly to the cloud of miasma.  
"Removing your heart has bought you only time you old hag. Make no mistake, sooner or later, I _will_ kill you, and as many of your minions as I can get my claws into, _have I made myself clear?_."

While there was no outward response to Lena's threat, Sam distantly felt anger, and knew Lena was pushing someone's buttons, but what caught his eye, was the sudden clenching of her fist, even as she bared her teeth (dear god, her canines were...there was no way this girl was human, no way _at all_) at the miasma. When her hand relaxed once more, there was a crackling blue-white fist-sized ball of light hovering at her fingertips.

Sam felt his eyebrows lift, even as she shoved the ball of magic into the, now shrieking, cloud. As it dispersed Sam reached over and gently closed his brother's gaping mouth. No one had said anything about her being able to do that! Perhaps the strangest part about the whole thing though, was that she calmly turned around and continued lecturing them, her voice back to the monotone she had been using all along, at least until she mentioned...

"Lesson Number Two: _Silver_." Why, would she hate silver so much? Oh, poison. Right.

* Sam's head was reeling from all the shit Lena had just poured into him. He really had no idea what to do with the information. So all those supernatural creatures really DID exist. More than just vampires, shifters, and witches. Other...things. And apparently they were supposed to hunt and kill them, with Lena as a partner. She was scary. Very scary. He really did have nothing to do or say anymore. Ruby be damned. This was none of his issue anymore.

He was frustrated beyond belief. After learning about silver being poison to shifters, Dean had insisted upon loading their guns with silver bullets. They had contacted Lena. They had probably observed more than any one else had of her. She had left, still boiling with anger, and still terrifying the brothers. It was time for Sam to hold up his end of the bargain with Ty. That...parasite that made bile rise in his throat at the very thought of his...eating habits.

Sam dialed the hidden number that was Ty's private line before realizing it was the afternoon and that Ty likely wasn't awake yet. As he expected, Sam got Ty's answering lackey. The butler. The butler gave him some shit and told him to call back later when the master was awake.

It was terrifying how all of his servants referred to him as Master as if it were a title rather than simply a job description of someone who paid their salary. Sam hung up in frustration, then noticed another number that had somehow appeared without his knowing it. It wasn't something he had written...in fact, it was written in unusual handwriting. Beautiful handwriting, but still he wondered how the note had got there.

_Call me if you need help, Elspeth_ and then there was a number listed below. Sam fingered the note for a bit, refusing to believe that he was part of this...Night World. That he was one of those...creatures. A...witch. It just didn't seem possible. Of course, he did have...what, visions? Premonitions of what might or might not happen in the future? Odd things happened. He could feel things from people...there was no other explanation. After hesitating for a bit, he got up the courage to call the witch Crone.

Sam cleared his throat. "Uhm, Elspeth? This is, uh...I uh..."

The old woman on the other end of the line answered without really needing to. "Yes, I know. I knew you would call eventually, Sam Winchester. After learning from the wild child, Lena, you couldn't resist the call of the unknown, your magic, dear child. You must learn to harness it...to use it...for good."

"What else would I use it for? I'm not a...demon. Or a Dark Witch. I mean, I don't even know what I am. Not really. Just...maybe teach me how to control my visions. My...feelings I get from people." Sam swallowed. Hoping Elspeth didn't notice his nerves.

The old woman seemed to smile from the other end of the line. "Yes, I can indeed help you. And more. I can teach you to do more than just control your powers. I can teach you to harness them. Come to the shop tomorrow evening. I await your company, dear boy. Do not be late."

With that, the line went dead. Sam listened to the dial tone before hanging up. He rubbed his head with his hands. This just couldn't get any odder.

***

In his manor, Ty had finally woken up from his rest. After feeding from one of his servants, he received the news from his butler that Sam Winchester had called with news on Lena. According to the butler, Lena was their new "trainer" in the ways of the preternatural. Ty wasn't sure he liked this turn of events. The Winchesters disliked him already, and he wasn't likely to get much news on Lena from them beyond what Sam owed him.

He flipped through an old book he had pulled off one of the shelves of his library about shifters and shifter lines. There was one ancient, powerful shifter line that went back to ancient times, and then all of a sudden the records stopped. The book was old. Very old. Older even than the vampire. Still...perhaps Lena was a descendant of one of these powerful ancient shifters. He shoved the book into a pile he had collected on shifter lore. He wasn't giving up on Lena. He would discover her mystery if it was the last thing he did.

Ty did the only thing left to him at the moment. He dialed the witches' shop. Instead of Elspeth answering, it was the bird/dragon shifter Kerowyn. Damn. She was timid, and terrified of "leeches" like Ty.

"Mistress Kerowyn, this is Tylendil. Yes, the leech. I merely wish to speak to Mistress Harman. Is she perhaps in?" He queried.

The bird shifter coughed nervously. "Uh, uhm...Elspeth is with a...new student. She can't be bothered at the moment. I...Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Mistress Bird, please give Mistress Harman a message for me, then. The Winchester brothers have made contact, close contact, with Lena. The shifter with unusual gifts. That is all, Miss Bird. By the way, have you made any progress with the book I gave you?"

Kerowyn seemed to fidget over the phone. "I have...experimented. I...I'm really not sure how to make the transformation yet. I...I have to go, uhm, Mister Vampire."

With that, the line went dead. Ty sighed. How ever would he get close to Lena without outright kidnapping her? If even he could. Ty threw on his coat and headed out into the night. Being frustrated had brought on an unplanned bloodlust. He would feed for real this time. Perhaps even from an unwilling victim. The fear made the blood sweeter. Exiting his home, Ty shooed away the driver that was offering him a ride.

Tonight, he would forgo being driven to his meals and hunt like a real vampire. He hadn't taken blood from a terrified victim in a long time. Perhaps he would even try shifter or witch blood. Those were all the more sweeter and a bit more of a challenge than just gripping a human by the shoulders and sinking his teeth in. Once he had cleared the gates of his mansion, he broke into a swift run, the cool night air energizing the vampire, making his cold blood pump faster. Eventually, he caught scent of shifter blood. From the smell of it, a predator of some type.

The fight would make the blood sweeter as well. He stopped running and made sure his footfalls were as silent as possible. He almost cursed himself for wearing heeled leather boots. Those weren't even good for running in, let alone sneaking up on a shifter in. Still, the shifter seemed to be a carrion-type and was too focused on feeding off the corpse of a dead dog to notice him. The vampire crept up behind the likely-canine shifter and swiftly leapt at him, clenching the shifter in an iron grip by the shoulders.

The wolf shifter, which is what it smelled like to the vampire, struggled and nearly managed to free itself, but not before Ty was able to sink his delicate fangs into the shifter's hot, sweet neck. The blood was full of fear and...something else. Loss, perhaps. This shifter had lost someone or something important to it. Oh well. That was not the vampire's problem. Ty drank deeply of the shifter's blood, savoring it. He hadn't taken shifter blood in a very long time. So long he couldn't remember.

So absorbed in drinking the sweet shifter blood was he, that Ty didn't notice a woman creeping up behind him, using a cloaking spell to remain utterly silent. The last thing the vampire remembered was a piercing pain in the side of his neck and then blackness.

***

Melania looked around the alley, disgusted. She gestured to her son, Wyatt, to pick up the leech and the shifter that were incapacitated with her specially made sedative potion. Melania kicked the leech's corpse (for it was a corpse, even if it wasn't technically dead, at least to her) and spat on it.

"Wyatt, this leech is one of the ones who survived, obviously. Take it back to the lab. We'll use its blood to make a more powerful form a Bloodrain. The shifter seems rather weak, but I can never pass up the chance of a new specimen. At least it will suffice to provide fodder for my experiments. Come." Melania waved her hand. A shimmering portal opened. Wyatt, being rather physically strong, was able to pick up the quite thin vampire and the thin shifter at the same time and carry them through the portal.

Within moments, they were back in Melania's lair. Wyatt grunted and threw the vampire and shifter on the cold concrete of the lab floor.

"Mom? Wyatt? Are you guys back? Where have you-" It was Chris, and he stopped mid sentence when he saw Ty lying on the cold floor of Melania's vile lab. Chris felt bile rise in his throat. As much as he disliked vampires, Ty was a friendly one and did not deserve what Melania was sure to put him through. Chris coughed to cover up his hesitation. He would have to tell the Crone about this as soon as he could. He could NOT let Ty go through the same torture as the other vampires and shifters had here.

**From here on out, it will all be my writing, pretty much, unless I get other folks wanting to join in on this RP/story and want to provide their own ideas. Hope at least a FEW people got enjoyment out of this!**


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